


Made In The Aftermath

by Narryornarry



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Friendship, M/M, Narry - Freeform, OT4, Reunion Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 13:13:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15437817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narryornarry/pseuds/Narryornarry
Summary: ““I just don’t want us falling apart,” Liam shrugs, putting his arms around Louis and Harry.“Good point, Liam. Plus, do we know if we’re still something people want?” Harry says.They’re all good points, Niall thinks. He knows he would hate for them to all fall apart because of a reunion, so he agrees. They also don’t know how much people really want a One Direction reunion. They’re all still fairly public separately, but together, who knows if they could get people caring like they used to.”Or, the one where boybands do come back.





	Made In The Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> First off I just want to say; sorry I’m posting this a little late, I decided last minute to change the way my fic went towards the end. Originally it was going to be longer and with a bit of angst, but I decided that angst didn’t really fit into the story.
> 
> Second; shout out to dearmrsawyer for [the artwork](http://nirryalbum.tumblr.com/post/176293968177/made-in-the-aftermath-by-narryornarry-artist) that she made for this fic and also for being my beta! 
> 
> Third; I started this fic when Liam and Cheryl were still together and I was more than halfway done when they broke up, so I had no time to really figure out how to rewrite so in this fic Liam and Cheryl are together. She’s only in two parts though(and that includes the first part which is why it would be hard to rewrite)
> 
> P.S. this fic may or may not have been inspired by the Backstreet Boys documentary that came out in 2015 called “Show ‘em What You’re Made Of”, I 100% recommend watching it!

Thirty. It’s a big number, Niall thinks, as he pulls up into driveway at Liam’s house. It seems like only yesterday they were barely 17, worried about where life would take them. Since then, they’d taken over the world, within the band and with their solo careers. They managed to reunite as a band a couple of times for small occasions, mainly around their ten-year anniversary, having to plan things around tours and other priorities. So much has changed since they were last a full-time band, and since they reunited as well. Liam and Cheryl got back together and have a second child now, a four-month-old baby girl, and Louis and Eleanor got married and have a one-year-old girl.  
  
Niall stops in the driveway and just sits in his car for a minute, thinking about how the only reason he’s able to make it to the party Cheryl is throwing Liam is because he’ll still be able to make it to Australia for the next leg of his tour afterwards. Barely, but he can’t miss this. Especially because Liam’s invited all of them a couple hours beforehand so they can catch up.  
  
He grabs the bag sitting on the seat next to him and gets out of the car, locking it before making his way to the house and ringing the doorbell. It’s silent for only a second, before he hears Winston, Liam’s dog, barking and the little voice of someone shouting, “I wanna get it!” Niall assumes it’s Liam’s son, Bear. A few seconds later the door opens.  
  
“Hi, uncle Niall!” Bear exclaims, stepping to the side to let Niall in.  
  
“Hey, buddy,” Niall grins, walking inside and pulling Bear into a hug. “You’ve gotten taller since the last time I saw you.”  
  
“And I lost more teeth! Two of them at the same time,” Bear tells him, looking up at Niall with excitement and showing his missing two front teeth.  
  
“No way? That’s double the tooth fairy money,” Niall says.  
  
“But daddy said I should wait till a third tooth falls cause then maybe the tooth fairy will give me a bonus,” Bear explains. “But that’s if I help mum around the house and with the baby.”  
  
“That makes sense,” Niall nods, closing the door behind them.  
  
“Bear!” a voice calls out. “Did you answer the door by yourself?”  
  
It’s Cheryl, coming from upstairs with a baby in her arms.  
  
“Don’t worry mum. I looked through the window to see who it was before. I’m almost seven remember?” Bear reassures her, exaggerating the last two words.  
  
“Almost,” Cheryl reminds him. “Hi, Niall!”  
  
“Hey, Cheryl,” Niall smiles, giving her a side hug.  
  
“How’ve you been? It’s been so long since you’ve been over here,” Cheryl asks.  
  
“I’ve been good, been a bit busy this past year with the album and tour. I’m glad I was able to make it today,” Niall tells her. “I’m guessing this is Lily?”  
  
“Yes it is,” Cheryl smiles. “And she is actually four months old today.”  
  
“Can I hold her?” Niall asks.  
  
“Maybe a little later. She’s a bit fussy right now since she just woke up from her nap,” Cheryl nods.  
  
“Lily, look it’s uncle Niall,” Bear says, looking up at his sister and pointing to Niall.  
  
“Hey, Lily,” Niall grins, making a funny face to get her to laugh. “I’m your uncle Niall. I’ve known your dad a long, long time.”  
  
Lily smiles a bit, making Niall chuckle.  
  
“She’s adorable,” Niall says.  
  
“Thank you. I should go change her. Liam and Louis are in the living room. And please make sure Bear doesn’t answer the door by himself again,” Cheryl tells him, looking down at Bear to make sure he hears her, and leaving to go back upstairs with Lily.  
  
“She’s right you know,” Niall smirks.  
  
Bear rolls his eyes, and Niall can’t help but be reminded of Liam back on the X-Factor, rolling his eyes when somebody was goofing off instead of rehearsing.  
  
“Daaaaaaaadyyyy, Uncle Niall is here!” Bear shouts, taking Niall’s hand and leading them to the living room.  
  
He hears Louis and Liam laughing as they walk in. Louis’ son, Freddie, is sitting in the middle of them holding an iPod.  
  
“Hey, what’re you lads laughing at?” Niall interrupts.  
  
“Niall!” they all exclaim in unison. Liam stands up with his arms open for a hug.  
  
“Happy birthday, Payno,” Niall says, letting Liam pull him into a hug.  
  
“Glad you could come, mate. We’re all getting old now aren’t we,” Liam chuckles.  
  
“Yeah, it’s crazy,” Niall nods.  
  
“Niall, it’s been a while,” Louis smirks, joining their hug.  
  
“What’s in your bag, uncle Niall?” Freddie interrupts them.  
  
Niall chuckles, looking at Louis, who playfully rolls his eyes.  
  
“Freddie,” Louis starts to say.  
  
“It was just a question,” Freddie shrugs.  
  
“It’s alright, Louis. I actually got these two presents,” Niall tells them.  
  
“PRESENTS?” Freddie and Bear both shout at the same time.  
  
“I think they’re more excited for presents than they are seeing me,” Niall smirks, looking into his bag and pulling out two boxes, handing them to Freddie and Bear.  
  
Niall loves getting souvenirs for friends and family, and while on tour in Madrid last month, he thought of the perfect gift for Louis and Liam’s kids, who just so happen to love footie just as much, if not more, than he does.  
  
“NO WAY,” Freddie shouts, opening his box and taking out a Real Madrid kids jersey. “It says Tommo on the back!”  
  
“Mine says Payno!” Bear exclaims, looking back and forth between his and Freddie’s gift.  
  
“Thanks, uncle Niall,” both boys say in unison.  
  
“My keyboard player wanted to get one customized for his kid, so I thought why not get one for them,” Niall says, looking over at Louis and Liam.  
  
“Let’s go try them on,” Freddie says, motioning to the hallway.  
  
The two boys run out of the room, acting as if it’s Christmas morning.  
  
“I see you take your role as cool uncle Niall very seriously,” Louis smirks.  
  
“That I do,” Niall chuckles.  
  
“So how’ve you been Niall? I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages, you’ve been so busy,” Liam asks. “I was worried you wouldn’t be able to make it today.”  
  
“Yeah lad, it’s hard to keep up with you these days,” Louis adds.  
  
Niall feels bad, he really does. But since the beginning of the year he hasn’t really been catching up with anyone. He was putting his all into this third album, his third baby. He had just been through a nasty breakup, and feelings he’s thought were long gone had unexpectedly resurfaced. He also has his third tour, and golf related things to worry about.  
  
“It’s hard to keep up with myself these days too if I’m being honest,” Niall shrugs jokingly. “I’ve missed you guys.”  
  
He means it too.  
  
“Where are you heading to next?” Liam asks.  
  
“Australia, I leave tomorrow. Gonna be spending my birthday there,” Niall tells him.  
  
“Wish we could’ve gone with you, mate. I have to go to LA to drop Freddie off at Briana’s,” Louis sighs.  
  
“You can take him with you, can’t you?” Niall suggests. He knows Louis hasn’t had the easiest time with Briana, but according to Louis she’s been more easy-going with things.  
  
“He starts school in a couple of days,” Louis shakes his head. “But Eleanor and Hannah are coming with me and we might go to Disneyland; El’s at home packing ‘cause we leave tomorrow.”  
  
“Are you guys bringing Freddie?” Niall asks.  
  
“No, he doesn’t know but he’ll be gutted when he finds out,” Louis says. “He loves it there.”  
  
“Poor kid. He has to move around LA to London and then London to LA all the time and he can’t even go to DisneyLand when he wants,” Liam says.  
  
“I mean his dad was in the world’s biggest boy band, I’m kinda jealous. He can’t really complain,” Louis chuckles.  
  
Niall silently sighs at the word was. It’s been years since they were fully a band. And even though Niall is successful on his own, and is fine with how things are now, he does sometimes wonder if they’ll ever really go back.  
  
“You know we should do something for the 10-year anniversary of us being on break,” Niall blurts out. He knows with Liam and Louis both having young kids it would be hard to do something big, but it’s worth a shot.  
  
“Like what? A tour?” Liam asks, furrowing his eyebrows.  
  
“Maybe, it would be fun,” Niall nods. “And it’s not for another two years so we have time to plan.”  
  
“I’m in, Louis and I have actually started to talk about writing for other people together, but I guess we can just write for the band and put out a sixth album too,” Liam agrees.  
  
“Don’t get too ahead of yourself, Payno,” Louis retorts. “We all need to be on the same page first.”  
  
“Well Harry should be here soon, and then we can talk,” Liam nods.  
  
“Zayn’s not coming, is he?” Niall asks, already knowing the answer.  
  
“Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to, Niall,” Louis scoffs.  
  
“I didn’t even invite him to be completely honest, I didn’t want Harry not to come,” Liam shrugs.  
  
“You know one day, they’ll have to work things out,” Niall says, shaking his head at the unspoken animosity between the two boys that hasn’t been fixed yet.  
  
“Speak for yourself, Niall. Harry tells me you haven’t talked to him in months,” Louis smirks, side-eyeing Niall.  
  
“Like I said, Tommo. I’ve been busy,” Niall tells him.  
  
That’s half the truth at least. The other half is complicated. He and Harry had a little on and off thing during the last two years of the band. Then when the break started, it all got too much and they ended it, and eventually those feeling he had for Harry went away. Years later, they came back again when he broke up with his girlfriend, and Harry was his shoulder to cry on.  
  
“I didn’t know you and Harry talked regularly?”  
  
“Well young Neil,” Louis starts to say, earning an eye roll from Niall. The doorbell interrupts him.  
  
“That must be Harry, I’ll get it,” Liam exclaims, walking out of the room to get the door.  
  
“So, excited to finally see him then, Niall?” Louis says as soon as they’re alone.  
  
“What’re you talking about?” Niall furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“C’mon, don’t play dumb. You’re still in love with Harry,” Louis smirks.  
  
“Me? In love with Harry? I’ve never been in love with him,” Niall shakes his head.  
  
“That’s not what the history books say,” Louis smirks.  
  
Niall sighs. Louis knows too much for him to deny it. Louis always knows too much.  
  
“I got over him when the break started, and we were able to be friends again. Just friends. Then he fucked it up again,” Niall explains.  
  
“Maybe he’s in love with you too?” Louis suggests.  
  
“I doubt it,” Niall says.  
  
“He told me he was,” Louis tells him.  
  
Niall does a double take. “Really?” Niall asks.  
  
“Kind of. He always asks me about you. It’s like he doesn’t know he can just call you,” Louis chuckles.  
  
“Well if he’s in love with me he shouldn’t have run off the morning after he comforted me after my breakup,” Niall scoffs.  
  
“You just broke up with your long-term girlfriend, Niall. He probably realized he didn’t think you were ready yet,” Louis says.  
  
“I wasn’t ready,” Niall nods.  
  
“Maybe if the band reunites, it’ll be the perfect chance for you two to really work on things,” Louis suggests.  
  
“Why? So we can just end up like we were before when we go on break again?” Niall says, shaking his head at the idea. “We’re just gonna have to be friends. That’s it.”  
  
Niall hears Bear shout, “Uncle Harry is here!” and turns around, waiting for everyone to enter the living room.  
  
“So do you wanna be the cool uncle so bad so they like you better than Harry?” Louis chuckles. Niall’s about to respond, when he sees Freddie enter, and right behind him are Harry, Liam and Bear.  
  
“Uncle Harry, look at the shirts Uncle Niall got us!” Freddie grins, showing off his new present.  
  
“They have our names on the back,” Bear adds, pointing at his back.  
  
“They’re really cool, I like them,” Harry nods, nearly getting interrupted when Bear suggests playing footie in the backyard, and both boys run out of the room.  
  
“Hey there’s our young Harold, we’ve been waiting for you,” Louis smiles, walking over to Harry to give him a hug.  
  
“Hey, Lou,” Harry smiles back, hugging him back.  
  
Niall never thought he’d see the day where Harry wouldn’t naturally go straight to him when entering a room, and he doesn’t know how to feel about that.  
  
“Hey, Harry,” Niall finally says, after he and Louis are done hugging.  
  
“Hey, Niall. Long time no see!” Harry exclaims, pulling him into a hug.  
  
Niall expects it to be awkward, but it’s not. Harry squeezes him tightly for a few seconds longer than Niall expects, and finally lets go.  
  
“It’s been a while.”  
  
“Yeah, it has. I’ve just been busy, but I missed you,” Niall nods.  
  
Harry smiles, giving Niall a warm feeling in his stomach, a feeling that makes him want to kiss Harry, but he knows he can’t.  
  
“If you two lovebirds are done,” Louis starts to say. “We’ve got important business matters we were discussing before Harry got here.”  
  
“Business matters?” Harry furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“Yeah. Niall brought up the idea of a reunion,” Liam tells him. “One with a tour and maybe an album too for the 10-year anniversary of our hiatus.”  
  
Niall starts to get a little tense, thinking Harry will hate the idea and it’ll cause awkwardness for the rest of the night. He watches Harry think for a moment.  
  
“I like it,” Harry finally nods, smiling at them.  
  
“Really?” Niall asks.  
  
“Yeah, why not? All I have planned is finishing a current tour but when that’s done I’m free to do anything. I think the timing is perfect,” Harry says.  
  
“I can’t believe we didn’t even have to convince you at all,” Niall smirks. He doesn’t mean any harm, never does when he jokes around like this. But Harry’s always portrayed in the media as someone who would never go back to the band, and sometimes it’s too hard not to poke fun at him.  
  
“Well a few years ago I might’ve not wanted to and would need some convincing. But I really think we should,” Harry tells them.  
  
“So then it’s final, we’re coming back,” Liam grins. “We need to really think about if it’s what we all wanna do though. I think before we go looking for labels or starting anything we should at least have a few days to think about it.”  
  
“It’s been over 10 years and Liam’s still the sensible one,” Louis chuckles.  
  
“I just don’t want us falling apart,” Liam shrugs, putting his arms around Louis and Harry.  
  
“Good point, Liam. Plus, do we know if 1D is still something people want?” Harry says.  
  
They’re all good points, Niall thinks. He knows he would hate for them to all fall apart because of a reunion, so he agrees. They also don’t know how much people really want a One Direction reunion. They’re all still fairly public separately, but together, who knows if they could get people caring like they used to.  
  
“Only one way to find out,” Niall smirks, taking out his cell phone. He figures a selfie with all four of them will break the internet. That is, if people still care.  
  
They take a few pictures, two to post online and one just for themselves. Niall captions the post ‘all together for Payno’s birthday !’ and hits send, putting his phone away before he can see any reactions.  
  
They fall back into the same pattern quickly, like no time has changed. Niall’s surprised at how easy it’s always been for things to never change between them. They still fit, after all these years. He forgets about his feelings for Harry, too busy catching them up on everything he’s done and listening to them ramble on about what’s been happening to them.  
  
Later that night, when most of the guests invited have left, they’re all outside in Liam’s big backyard. Niall’s sat on a chair closer to the house, watching Louis play footie with Freddie, Bear and a few of Liam’s nephews, when Liam sits down next to him.  
  
“You ok?” Liam asks, his face showing genuine concern.  
  
“Yeah,” Niall nods. “Just watching Louis lose at footie to a six- and seven-year-old.”  
  
Liam chuckles, looking over at Louis, and then back at Niall.  
  
“To be fair, Bear’s pretty good, he likes being the best at everything,” Liam grins.  
  
“Reminds me of someone else I know,” Niall smirks, remembering all the times Liam needed things to be perfect when 1D was first put together.  
  
Niall looks back at Louis, who’s now talking to Harry, probably convincing him to be a referee of some sort.  
  
“Since when have Harry and Louis been this close?”  
  
“Are you jealous?” Liam says almost immediately, raising one eyebrow.  
  
“No, why would I be?” Niall shrugs. “I’ve just noticed that they seem a lot closer than I remember them being, that’s all.”  
  
“‘Cause Harry’s always been all over you. You were always his first pick. Now you aren’t,” Liam tells him.  
  
“Well it’s all his fault,” Niall shrugs.  
  
“So why are you jealous then?” Liam asks.  
  
“I’m not-” Niall starts to say, but instead lets out a sigh.  
  
“It’s ok to feel jealous, Niall. How do you think I felt in the band when Zayn and I would do everything together, but then he started spending more time with Louis and less time with me. It happens,” Liam nods. “It also might not help that you’re in love with Harry.”  
  
“I’m not,” Niall shakes his head. “Why do you and Louis think that?”  
  
“Because we’ve had this same exact conversation about ten years ago, remember?” Liam chuckles.  
  
Niall sighs. He can’t argue with Louis and he definitely can’t argue with Liam. He was the first person Niall told about his secret crush on Harry, back on their second tour as a band. It seems like a lifetime ago.  
  
“Out of all people, it had to be Harry. The guy who can’t even decide what to eat for dinner without changing his mind a billion times,” Niall sighs again.  
  
“Hey, I think he’s just scared, and so are you. You guys just need to communicate with each other,” Liam tells him.  
  
“You think he doesn’t understand that leaving the morning after sleeping with me right after I ended a long-term relationship is wrong without me explaining it to him?” Niall says, raising an eyebrow.  
  
“You know after that happened, I told him he shouldn’t have done that, Louis told him that too, and he knows he shouldn’t have. He just felt like he was rushing you into something you weren’t ready for,” Liam says.  
  
“Well he can tell me that instead of telling you guys, thinking you two have some magic powers that’ll fix everything,” Niall tells him.  
  
“Tell him that,” Liam smirks. “How are we going to tour again if you guys are barely even speaking to each other?”  
  
“Well The Rolling Stones somehow managed to do it. Guess we really are Mick and Keith,” Niall chuckles. The comparison is crazy, but it’s something fans always talked about.  
  
“No, you aren’t. You’re Niall and Harry, and you’re gonna actually talk it out this time. What good does not talking do?” Liam tells him.  
  
Niall shrugs. Liam’s right, there’s no use in not talking it out. And if they’ll be touring all together again, they’ll have to speak to each other.  
  
“Maybe when I get back home from tour,” Niall nods.  
  
Their talk is interrupted by Louis calling them over to join them. They get up and walk over to them, Harry starting to talk as soon as they get there.  
  
“This was really fun lads, but I think I’m going to head on home.”  
  
“Home? It’s barely dark out,” Liam said, checking his watch. “It’s not even 10 yet.”  
  
“I know but it’s an hour drive home and I have to get up early to go to Germany for my next show,” Harry explains.  
  
“That’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard,” Louis smirks.  
  
“Hey, it’s ok, I understand,” Liam nods.  
  
“Knew you would. This was fun though. Can’t wait to do all this on our reunion tour,” Harry smiles. He gives Louis, Liam, Freddie, Bear and anyone else that isn’t Niall a goodbye hug, before stopping right in front of Niall.  
  
“I missed you.”  
  
Niall expects Harry not to hug him, but then before he knows it, Harrys arms are around him, and he hugs back, pretending not to notice Harry’s tight squeeze that he’d always give when they would part ways for a little bit. Harry finally pulls away, giving Niall a quick peck on the cheek, and smiles at him. All Niall can do is nod, glad it’s getting dark and nobody can see the way he’s blushing.  
  
“Are you two lovebirds done?” Louis smirks, playfully rolling his eyes.  
  
“Harry, why don’t I walk you out,” Liam says, motioning Harry to follow him.  
  
Harry nods and follows him, and soon it’s just him and Louis in Liam’s backyard.  
  
“What are you and Liam up to?” Niall asks, before Louis could say anything.  
  
“Nothing,” Louis shakes his head. “We just think you both should stop being idiots. You both love each other, so do something about it.”  
  
“We’ve tried to do something, Louis. It didn’t work,” Niall explains, rolling his eyes.  
  
“That was years ago. You’ve both grown since then and are more mature about things now,” Louis tells him.  
  
“You sure about that?” Niall furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“Yes,” Louis nods. “You know, come to think of it I think I better get going too. I also have an early flight tomorrow.”  
  
“So do I, our band name is so ironic nowadays,” Niall chuckles.  
  
They both go back inside, and thankfully for Niall, Harry has already left. He, Louis and Liam chat for a few minutes, planning when they should meet up to talk about the reunion tour.  
  
“Shouldn’t we have talked about this with Harry?” Niall asks.  
  
“We can fill him in later,” Louis says.  
  
“I asked before he left when he had free time and he said he’ll be free by the end of November,” Liam tells them.  
  
“Perfect,” Louis nods.  
  
Then Louis and Freddie leave, and Niall follows behind them, thinking he should also get some rest for his flight the next day.  
  
************  
  
When he lands in Australia, he gets a text. It’s from Harry.  
  
_When will you be back in London? I think we should talk. H_ _  
_  
This was so typical Harry, Niall thought.  
  
_I know who you are, Harry. I’ll be back next month. N_ _  
_  
He can’t help but laugh at his reply.  
  
Harry doesn’t reply until the next day.  
  
Niall has an interview before one of his shows, and for the first time in what seems like forever, the subject of a reunion comes up.  
  
“It’s good to have you back, Niall,” Smallzy, an Australian radio presenter, starts to say. “You’re spending your birthday here, are you?”  
  
“It’s good to be back, I missed it here. Yeah, I’m spending my birthday here. I have a show the day before and day after so I can’t wait,” Niall nods.  
  
“And I’m sure your dedicated fans will make sure that you have the best birthday ever, your thirtieth right?” Smallzy asks.  
  
“Yeah, thirty. Can you believe it?” Niall chuckles.  
  
“No I can’t, Niall. Speaking of, I saw you and the other 1D lads had a reunion for Liam’s birthday, how was that?” Smallzy asks.  
  
“It was good, we’re always so busy so it’s nice when we can all make time to get together. I really missed them,” Niall tells him.  
  
“I’ve seen loads of fans speculate about another reunion ever since you posted that picture,” Smallzy says.  
  
“Yeah, that always happens when we get together,” Niall smirks. “But I think there might be a point in the near future where they won’t have to speculate anymore.”  
  
“Oh really? How come?” Smallzy furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Niall shrugs, smirking at the camera.  
  
“Isn’t it crazy to you that fans still get excited over you guys, though? It must be,” Smallzy changes the subject. “Do you think they’re the same ones from eight years ago when the break first started?”  
  
“Yeah, it’s always been surprising. I’m sure lots of fans have come and gone and we always gain new fans, but you’d be surprised to see how many people have stayed for eight or more years,” Niall says.  
  
“That’s incredible, mate,” Smallzy says, and then moves on to yet another topic.  
  
After the interview, he goes on Twitter to see if anyone heard him hint at a reunion, and is shocked to see ‘#OneDirectionReunion’ is a trending topic. He shakes his head in amazement, as he scrolls through the tag where so many people are freaking out.  
  
On his birthday, Harry’s the first person to text him.  
  
_Happy birthday, Niall. I’m glad we’ve been friends for almost 15 years now, that’s almost more than we’ve not been friends. All the love. H_ _  
_  
And Niall can’t help but laugh at how robotic it sounds, but so Harry-like as well. He knows if Harry was there with him, he’d be all over him, like always. He really misses it.  
  
He’s done with tour by mid-October. He flies back to London, and the first thing he does is text Harry. He knows Harry goes on his last leg of tour in a week, so he wants to make plans ASAP.  
  
_Do you wanna come over to my place?_ _  
_  
He’s scared Harry won’t reply, especially when it’s past a few hours and still no answer. But then his phone buzzes.  
  
_Of course. When can I come?_ _  
_  
He waits an hour, not to seem desperate, and then responds.  
  
_Tomorrow at 6?_ _  
_  
This time Harry responds almost instantly.  
  
_I’ll be there :)_ _  
_  
************  
  
“It’s not a date,” Niall groans. He’s talking to Louis on the phone, minutes before Harry is supposed to come.  
  
“Not to you, but if Harry’s going to come all dressed up and expecting a candlelit dinner don’t come crying to me,” Louis chuckles, and Niall hopes he’s just joking.  
  
“He’s gonna be here any minute so I have to go. I’ll call you after,” Niall tells him.  
  
“Alright, Niall. Good luck, and don’t make me yell at either of you,” Louis says, chuckling.  
  
They hang up, and right after, the doorbell rings. It’s Harry. He walks to the door, a million thoughts going through his head.  
  
“Niall!” Harry exclaims, as soon as Niall opens the door.    
  
“Hey, Harry,” Niall smiles, letting him in. He gets a warm feeling in his stomach when Harry smiles back.  
  
Harry gives him a hug, a little less tight than last time, but it still leaves butterflies in Niall’s stomach.  
  
“How was Australia?” Harry asks.  
  
“It was good, I’m glad I spent my birthday there,” Niall tells him, leading them to the living room.  
  
“I heard you hinted at a reunion tour,” Harry smirks.  
  
“Yeah, I did. I figured why not, you know?” Niall shrugs.  
  
“Yeah, I think I’ve been having second thoughts though,” Harry blurts out.  
  
Niall freezes. The warm feeling Niall has goes away, and he’s stands in the middle of his living room, raising one eyebrow at what Harry just said. He should’ve expected this.  
  
“You what?”  
  
“Let’s sit down and then we’ll talk,” Harry says, going over to the couch and sitting down, Niall follows him.  
  
“So, why are you having second thoughts?” Niall asks, nervous to hear the answer.  
  
“I’ve just been thinking, maybe we should leave 1D as is. Why take what can be a perfect end to something and potentially ruin it?” Harry starts to say.  
  
“Ruin it? How would we ruin it?” Niall says.  
  
“You never know. And what great band has come back and stayed on top after so long?” Harry continues.  
  
“The Rolling Stones,” Niall says instantly. They’re one of his and Harry’s favorite bands. He even watched a documentary on them while on the flight back home. “I’m pretty sure they took a break or two, and they turned out just fine.”  
  
“We’re not The Rolling Stones, Niall,” Harry chuckles.  
  
“And we’re not any other band that didn’t successfully come back after a break either,” Niall tells him.  
  
Harry sighs, and Niall can only guess that there’s something else he isn’t saying. Something else that’s bothering him.  
  
“Yeah, you’re right,” Harry nods. “I still don’t know about this though.”  
  
“Do Liam and Louis know about these second thoughts?” Niall asks.  
  
“No, you’re the first person I’m telling.” Harry shakes his head.  
  
“Maybe you should’ve talked with them first, considering they’ve been working on the business side of the band for weeks now,” Niall tells him.  
  
“Well I was hoping after I talked to you I wouldn’t have to,” Harry says. “I was hoping by the end of the night I’d change my mind again.”  
  
“What’re you talking about?” Niall furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“The truth is, Niall, I want to tour as 1D again. I want a reunion to happen. But what about you and me? We’re going to be together all the time, are you going to ignore me then too?” Harry tells him.  
  
“I don’t know, are you going to sneak into my room and be gone by morning every single night?” Niall smirks.  
  
“That’s why I wanted to talk. I want to work things out,” Harrys says.  
  
“Well, you can start by explaining why you thought comforting me after my break up, ending up in my bed like old times, and then not being there when I woke up, was a good idea?” Niall tells him.  
  
“I realized I was probably rushing you into something when you just broke up with your ex-girlfriend. I didn’t want to take advantage of the situation, Niall. I promise, I would never do that to you on purpose,” Harry says.  
  
“Never? It’s not the first time you’ve done it, Harry,” Niall scoffs at him.  
  
“That was the old me,” Harry says.  
  
“Why didn’t you apologize sooner then?” Niall asks.  
  
“I don’t know. I guess I was scared to,” Harry shrugs.  
  
“You can’t just bottle it all up inside, Harry,” Niall tells him.  
  
“Speak for yourself, you’ve been ignoring me for about a year and a half now,” Harry smirks.  
  
“Well to be fair, I have been pretty busy,” Niall says.  
  
“So are we good?” Harry asks.  
  
“Yeah, I mean we have to be, right? We’re going to be seeing each other everyday on tour,” Niall nods.  
  
Harry just smiles and moves closer to him.  
  
“I love you, Niall.”  
  
Before Niall can respond, Harry leans in and kisses him. It takes him by surprise, and it’s short, but it leaves butterflies in his stomach. It’s not until Harry goes in for a second kiss that Niall realizes what’s happening and reluctantly pulls away.  
  
“You can’t just expect things to be exactly the same right away, Harry.”  
  
“I know. I’m sorry,” Harry sighs.  
  
“I love you, Harry. I don’t think I ever stopped. But I want us to properly be friends again, before we try anything,” Niall tells him.  
  
“That’s fair,” Harry nods.  
  
“And for the sake of the band, maybe it’s better this way,” Niall adds.  
  
“Yeah, I agree,” Harry says. “Maybe I should go then.”  
  
“No, don’t. Stay and we can watch a movie or something,” Niall suggests. “We are friends after all. We need to get used to spending time together like friends.”  
  
“Are you sure?” Harry asks.  
  
Niall nods, taking the remote from the table in front of them and turning on the TV. He flips through the channels, and the only good thing he can find on is a Harry Potter marathon. A few hours later, Harry’s asleep on the couch, and Niall’s a bit tired himself, so he turns off the TV and goes to bed, leaving Harry all alone. He figures Harry will be ok with sleeping on the couch, and in the morning they can have breakfast and start over as friends.  
  
The next day, Niall wakes up and finds the couch empty. Typical Harry, he thinks. He’s about to get his phone to text Harry, thinking he might’ve just felt awkward being here after their talk the night before, when he hears music coming from the kitchen. He walks towards it and finds Harry in there, cooking something while dancing to Fleetwood Mac.  
  
“Morning,” Niall says, starling Harry a little.  
  
“Morning,” Harry replies, turning the music down. “I’m making pancakes.”  
  
“I didn’t know I had pancakes,” Niall furrows his eyebrows, and walking over to Harry.  
  
“You didn’t. I had to go buy some,” Harry tells him. “I was going to wait for you to wake up but I got bored.”  
  
“What time is it?” Niall asks.  
  
“Almost noon, you must still be jet lagged,” Harry chuckles.  
  
“Yeah, I must be,” Niall agrees, getting two plates out of one of the cabinets and giving them to Harry.  
  
Niall grabs the forks and knives and sets them on the table while Harry finishes up with the pancakes, and then they sit down to eat.  
  
“So, how’d you sleep?” Harry asks.  
  
“Good, you?” Niall nods slowly, hoping things don’t get awkward.  
  
“Good,” Harry nods back. “You were in my dream last night.”  
  
“Really? What happened in it,” Niall’s eyes widen.  
  
“Yeah, you and the other boys. We were on tour and we got Hogwarts letters in the middle of it. But it wasn’t by mail, some random guy gave them to us while we were in the middle of a show. And in the letters it already had our houses assigned to us. It was weird. After the show, he took us in a magic flying car, and then I woke up before we landed anywhere,” Harry explains.  
  
“Do you remember the houses we were put in?” Niall asks.  
  
“No, all I remember is Louis swearing that he belongs in another one,” Harry chuckles.  
  
“That’s funny,” Niall laughs. “I think I’d be a pretty good Gryffindor.”  
  
“Isn’t that the best house to be in?” Harry asks.  
  
“I guess so,” Niall shrugs.  
  
And just like that, everything falls back into place, talking and laughing like nothing has changed. They talk about their tours, the past, the future, and everything else in between. It feels nice, and Niall’s surprised by how easy it is.  
  
After breakfast, Harry leaves, saying he needs to go back to Cheshire to visit his mum before his last leg of tour starts. He promises to keep in touch.  
  
They do talk over text for the next month and a half. Sometimes Harry replies right away, and sometimes it takes him days to reply, and Niall shakes his head at how typical it is of him.  
  
A month and a half later, they all meet up at Liam’s house again for their first meeting about a reunion. Harry texts them in the group chat they made that he’d be running late, so Niall makes it a point to be late as well, not wanting to be stuck talking about him and Harry with Louis and Liam, who’ve been texting him non-stop about their situation. They both end up arriving at Liam’s house at the same time.  
  
“Funny running into you here,” Harry chuckles, as Niall steps out of his car.  
  
“We should’ve carpooled,” Niall jokes.  
  
“Carpool Karaoke 2.0,” Harry smirks.  
  
“I brought my guitar, it would’ve been perfect,” Niall says, taking out his guitar case from the trunk of the car.  
  
“You should’ve told me, I would’ve brought mine,” Harry says.  
  
“Sorry,” Niall shrugs.  
  
They both lock their cars and make their way up the steps to Liam’s house. Before they can even ring the doorbell, the door opens.  
  
“Hey guys!” Liam exclaims.  
  
“Hey, Liam,” they both say in unison.  
  
“Did you guys know that you’re both late,” Liam tells them, letting them in. “We almost kicked you both out of the band.”  
  
“Haha, very funny, Payno,” Niall chuckles.  
  
“Maybe you guys are just early,” Harry says, making Niall laugh.  
  
Liam leads them to the dining room, where Louis is already sitting at the table.  
  
“Oi oi lads!” Louis exclaims when he sees them.  
  
“Did you guys carpool or something?” Liam asks them, sitting down next to Louis.  
  
“No, but we should’ve,” Harry tells them.  
  
Niall and Harry both sit down across from Louis and Liam.  
  
“Well now that you’re both here I can finally say it. Welcome to the first official One Direction reunion meeting,” Liam says to them, as he gets out his phone and goes to his notes to type.  
  
“I love how much this parallels our first ever band meeting, Liam’s acting like he’s the boss of us, Niall with his guitar, and Zayn’s probably not showing up,” Louis chuckles, making everyone else laugh.  
  
“Maybe we should’ve at least asked if he wanted to join us,” Liam says.  
  
It goes silent, as they all look at Liam. It’s become an inside joke really, that every time Liam mentions inviting Zayn they all look at him like he just said something between weird and confusing. It’s not because they don’t like Zayn. At least to Niall, Zayn’s still his brother, his best mate, he loves Zayn. But it’s been years, and they all know if it didn’t happen at their ten-year anniversary show, it won’t happen this time around either.  
  
“Never mind,” Liam playfully rolls his eyes. “Ok I guess we can begin then. Who wants to talk first?”  
  
“I’ll start,” Harry speaks up. “I told Ben Winston about the reunion, and he said he wants to make a little documentary out of it, for the fans.”  
  
“Like about us reuniting?” Louis asks.  
  
“Yeah, like he wants to film us all meeting up and planning the tour and getting ready for it. He wants us going back to X-Factor studios, and the places we grew up. He wants to make it really nostalgic and show how much we’ve changed and not changed as a band. He wants it released right before we tour,” Harry explains.  
  
“Sounds good,” Liam nods.  
  
“Yeah, I like it,” Niall says.  
  
“Fans would love it,” Louis says.  
  
“And I was thinking maybe we could each pick a place to visit that’s special to us, and we can make it fun by not telling each other what that place is until we get there,” Harry adds. “I already have the perfect place picked out.”  
  
“Where’s that?” Louis furrows he’s eyebrows.  
  
“It’s a surprise,” Harry grins. “The only hint I’ll give is that it has a ton of history.”  
  
“The old bungalow?” Liam asks.  
  
“No,” Harry shakes his head. “But that would be amazing if it was, wouldn’t it?”  
  
“You guys sold it, didn’t you?” Niall asks.  
  
“Yeah, when I bought mum her new home they had to sell the bungalow along with the old house,” Harry says.  
  
“That would’ve been a good place to film at,” Louis tells him.  
  
“I reckon you can find the address and ask the owner if we can film there?” Niall asks.  
  
“I doubt they’d let us,” Harry says. “Besides I’m set on the place I picked.”  
  
“When does Ben want to start filming?” Liam asks.  
  
“Whenever we want to,” Harry shrugs. “We’re going to be our own bosses this time around, right?”  
  
“Yeah, absolutely. Louis and I were actually talking about putting the band on his new label,” Liam nods.  
  
“If we want to tour all of 2025 we need to announce it by the summer, and maybe do some shows before that to get people interested,” Louis tells them.  
  
“Are we also going to make an album?” Niall asks. “I don’t think we’ll have a time to do that before tour.”  
  
“If we start now we’ll have time,” Harry says.  
  
“We could just make an EP to start and then think of making a full album later on,” Liam suggests.  
  
“I like that idea,” Louis nods.  
  
“Ok, so does anyone not like the EP idea?” Liam asks, looking over at Niall and Harry, who shake their heads.  
  
“But I think we should focus more on tour cause that’s going to be the hardest to plan,” Harry says. “We don’t even have a backup band.”  
  
“Do you think the lads from our old backup band would come back?” Louis asks.  
  
“I’ll try to get in contact with them and ask, it’s been a while since I’ve spoken to any of them,” Niall says. “If not I can ask around, maybe some of my band can join us.”  
  
“I can ask around for stylists and photographers for photoshoots,” Harry says.  
  
“On one condition,” Louis smirks. “No matching sparkly Gucci suits.”  
  
“Darn, Louis. That was my one idea,” Harry laughs sarcastically.  
  
“That actually doesn’t sound like too bad of an idea,” Niall chuckles.  
  
For the next hour, they talk more about touring, making an EP, and other band things. They decide they want to tour from March to October, making sure they go all over the world but also get breaks in between. Niall’s a bit anxious about everything turning out perfect, but he’s also excited.  
  
************  
  
They start filming the documentary in the middle of January, starting with Niall’s hometown. They all take a plane to Dublin and are picked up by Niall’s dad, Bobby, who drives them all the way to Niall’s childhood home in Mullingar.  
  
“You know I don’t think I’ve ever actually been to Mullingar,” Louis says, when they get closer to Niall’s house. He, Liam, and Harry are sat in the back while Niall is up in front with his dad.  
  
“Neither have I,” Liam shakes his head.  
  
“I think only Harry has, right, Niall?” Bobby asks.  
  
“Yeah, we were all supposed to come during The X-Factor but the weather prevented it and the rest of you lads never ended up coming here,” Niall nods.  
  
“I feel really special because of that,” Harry chuckles. “I came here with you before live shows even began.”  
  
“So, Niall… is Mullingar where it all started for you two?” Louis smirks.  
  
“What’re you talking about?” Niall raises an eyebrow and looks back at Louis, his eyes widening when he realizes what Louis meant.  
  
“Shut up, Louis,” he rolls his eyes, earning chuckles from Louis and Liam.  
  
“The only action that happened was when I got into that fight in Tallaght,” Harry tells them. “And I could’ve taken them if Niall didn’t stop me.”  
  
“They were like three years older than you, Harry.” Niall says. “You would’ve turned up to The X-Factor with a black eye.”  
  
Their talking is interrupted with Bobby arriving at the house.  
  
“Are we all staying here?” Liam asks, as they all get out of the car.  
  
“Yeah, why not? We can split into pairs and two can take my old room and the other two Greg’s old room,” Niall tells them.  
  
“I call bunking with Liam,” Louis exclaims, and Niall barely catches the wink directed to him. Niall ignores it, quietly sighing.  
  
They all take their suitcases out of the car and go inside, Niall and Harry in front.  
  
“Hey, it’ll be just like old times!” Harry says, putting an arm around Niall, and Niall can’t help but lean into his touch. In the past couple of months, they’ve become closer than they’ve been for a while. It’s nice, but also hard when he remembers the feelings are still there, on both sides.  
  
They show Louis and Liam their room, and go across the hall into Niall’s old room.  
  
“I know you haven’t lived here since before The X-Factor, but it’s amazing how nothing has changed in this room,” Harry says, looking around.  
  
“Well, like you said. I haven’t lived here since I was 17,” Niall nods. “When’s Ben coming?”  
  
“Tomorrow, so we have the rest of the day to ourselves,” Harry tells him.  
  
“I would show you guys around town but that’s what we’re going to be doing tomorrow, right? We can go to a pub tonight or something,” Niall says.  
  
“Sounds good,” Harry agrees. “Do you think we’ll both fit on your bed?”  
  
Niall freezes for a second, only now realizing how close together they’ll be sleeping.  
  
“I can sleep on the floor, you can take my bed.”  
  
“You never slept on the floor before,” Harry furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“I know, but I don’t know how comfy we’ll be if we sleep together.”  
  
“Well unless you magically have another mattress you can fit in here, I’m not letting you sleep on the floor,” Harry tells him.  
  
Before Niall can reply, there’s a knock at the door. It’s Louis and Liam, asking about what they’re going to be doing for the rest of the day.  
  
They decide on going out for pizza and then a pub near Niall’s house. Afterwards, they go see a new superhero movie that’s just come out, and Niall feels like they’re reliving their young adult years, only nobody notices them. It’s shocking, but at the same time relieving.  
  
They get home around half past ten, and the two older boys decide on calling it a night, both using the excuse that they’re not getting enough sleep due to their respective babies, leaving Niall and Harry by themselves.  
  
“So did you figure out a place where you want us to film yet?” Harry asks. They’re in Niall’s room just sitting around on their phones, both on Niall’s bed.  
  
“Not yet,” Niall shrugs. He really should get on that though, he thinks.  
  
“It would’ve been great if we could go back to the bungalow, I’ve been thinking about it ever since Liam mentioned it. We became a band there,” Harry tells him.  
  
Niall nods, eyes glued to his phone, until Harry speaks again.  
  
“And you and I became best mates here.”  
  
Niall looks over at him, giving Harry half a smile. He’s right.  
  
“Yeah, yeah we did.”  
  
“I always used to think to myself, I fell in love with the band at the bungalow,” Harry starts to say. “And I fell in love with you here.”  
  
“Harry,” Niall starts to say, but then sighs instead. He doesn’t know how to respond to that.  
  
“I’m glad the two of us got to bond early on by coming here, it was our own special thing,” Harry continues.  
  
Niall looks at him, knowing exactly what Harry wants to say, but won’t. He wants to say it too. Wants to go back to what they were during the last years of the band and before the break, but he knows they still need time.    
  
“Me too,” he nods.  
  
Before anything else can be said, Niall gets up and says he’s going to get ready for bed, leaving the room to go to the bathroom. Harry does the same soon after, and they both lay down in Niall’s bed, Harry falling asleep almost immediately.  
  
Niall stays awake for a little bit longer, trying to find the address of the old bungalow Harry’s parents used to own. He knows it’s near impossible, but he thinks surprising Harry with a trip there would mean a lot to not only him, but the other boys, and himself as well.  
  
The next morning, he wakes up to an arm draped around him and hair in his face. Harry must’ve cuddled up to him during the night, he thinks. He can’t really be mad, considering how he knows Harry, and this is how they would always wake up when they were together. He lets out a sigh, wishing he didn’t have the urge to cuddle him back. He wants to cuddle, and kiss him, and just have things go back to the way they were, but he knows it’s not that simple.  
  
He hears footsteps coming from the hallway, and whispers that he assumes are from Louis and Liam. He thinks about joining them in whatever they’re doing as he hears them walk downstairs. So he slowly moves Harry’s arm from around himself and sits up, looking at the clock next to the bed for the time. It’s half past 9, and Niall’s surprised Harry isn’t awake yet, but figures he’s just tired. He gets up, puts on a plain white t-shirt and heads downstairs.  
  
He finds Louis and Liam in the kitchen.  
  
“Morning,” he says, as he walks into the room.  
  
“Morning,” they both say in unison. They’re sitting at the table, a laptop in front of them.  
  
“What’re you guys up to?” Niall asks, sitting down next to them.  
  
“We’re just researching possible venues we could tour,” Louis tells him.  
  
“Is Harry still sleeping?” Liam asks.  
  
“Yeah,” Niall nods.  
  
“Did you two have a fun night cuddling?” Louis smirks.  
  
“Cuddling? We didn’t cuddle,” Niall says, furrowing his eyebrows.  
  
“Yes you did. We peaked into your room earlier and saw Harry with his arm around you,” Louis winks at him.  
  
“Nothing happened, that’s how I woke up. It was probably just second nature to him,” Niall shook his head. “I don’t really even know if I want anything to happen between us again.”  
  
“C’mon, Niall. You both love each other, you should give it one more chance,” Liam says.  
  
“We’re just trying to help you, Niall. We want both of you to be happy,” Louis adds.  
  
“I know,” Niall sighs. “There’s one thing you can help me do though.”  
  
“What’s that?” Liam asks.  
  
“I want to find the old bungalow we spent time at when we first got put together and surprise Harry by going there for a weekend. We can do it for his birthday coming up,” Niall explains.  
  
“Are you sure you guys aren’t back together?” Louis chuckles.  
  
“I’m sure, Louis. What, we can’t do something nice for a friend?” Niall rolls his eyes. “Do you guys like the idea?”  
  
“I like it,” Liam nods. “It’ll be real special to go back.”  
  
“I do too, but how are we going to find it?” Louis asks.  
  
“I was thinking maybe call Anne and tell her the plan, and maybe ask for the address if she remembers it. Then maybe we can get in contact with the owners and they’ll let us film,” Niall tells them.  
  
“You think it’ll work?” Liam asks.  
  
“I bet it will,” Niall says. “I’ll tell Ben about it so he knows.”  
  
“Harry’s birthday is in two weeks so we better get going with this plan then,” Louis says. “We can film his part of the documentary then too.”  
  
“I heard my name and birthday,” a voice interrupts them, it’s Harry.  
  
“Morning, lad,” Louis says.  
  
“We’re just talking about how we should go film your part of the movie on your birthday so you’ll be in your hometown on the day,” Liam explains.  
  
“Yeah, and maybe stay over there for the weekend and celebrate,” Niall adds.  
  
“My birthdays on a Thursday this year, so that could work,” Harry nods, sitting down next to Niall.  
  
“Speaking of, when does Ben get here?” Louis asks.  
  
“He texted me saying that he and his crew will be in Mullingar around noonish, so we have time,” Harry tells them.  
  
They sit around for a little longer, then go eat breakfast and get ready for the day. Ben gets to Niall’s house sometime after noon, and they start filming, first in Niall’s room.  
  
It’s a little weird at first, having a camera around them while they’re all together after so many years. But they get used to it pretty quickly.  
  
“I remember writing ‘my dream is to be a singer’ on my desk when I was younger,” Niall tells the other boys, as he shows them the desk with said writing on it. “I never thought it would actually happen.”  
  
Niall tells them about his childhood, his dreams, his fears, and anything else he can think of. They know most of it already, they all know each other’s childhoods, but there’s something special about having them all in his old bedroom in Mullingar while he reminisces on everything.  
  
Afterwards, Ben asks the other three boys what they think of Niall, for the documentary. It’s an incredibly cheesy segment, but they all figure fans will love it.  
  
“I think we’re all very proud of him, aren’t we lads?” Louis smiles, looking to Liam and Harry.  
  
“Yeah, he’s like our little brother,” Liam nods, grinning at Niall.  
  
“Except he’s older than me, but I’m proud of him just the same,” Harry smirks.  
  
“I genuinely think Niall can be friends with a tree, he’s the nicest guy I know,” Liam says.  
  
“How would I be friends with a tree?” Niall chuckles, furrowing his eyebrows.  
  
“Don’t know,” Liam shrugs. “You just would be, because you’re just that friendly. And you just love to make people happy and everyone can be themselves around you.”  
  
“Everyone needs a Niall in their life,” Louis says. “He’s the best friend anyone can ask for.”  
  
“I’m glad we all have a Niall in our lives,” Harry smiles, looking directly at Niall. “Where would we be without him?”  
  
Niall can’t help but blush.  
  
They go outside and Niall walks them around his street, and talks about all the fun times he and his friends used to have. He takes them into town and to all the places he used to go. They even go to Niall’s old school and surprise people there. They don’t expect for anyone to care, but students and teacher alike come up to them and freak out when they see the four boys. It’s crazy, Niall thinks. They haven’t been gone for that long, compared to other bands at least, but they’re still remembered and liked by people after so many years.  
  
The next day, they all go back home. Ben agrees to meet them in Holmes Chapel on Harry’s birthday, and they all plan to drive up together the day before. He hopes his plans with the bungalow works, and that they can at least film there.  
  
The weekend before, Niall stops by for dinner at Liam’s. It’s just him this time, since Louis is in LA, and Harry is out celebrating his birthday early with his London friends.  
  
“So, any news on the bungalow?” Liam asks. They’re both sitting at Liam’s kitchen table along with Cheryl and Bear.  
  
“Yeah, the owner got back to me earlier today actually. They told me we can come see it and film a little bit, but we can’t stay overnight,” Niall tells him. He shrugs a little at the last part. He knows the chance of being able to stay there was zero, even if they were once the biggest band on the planet. Anne even told him, when he called and asked for the address, that he shouldn’t get his hopes up.  
  
“Well I don’t think anyone would let four people they don’t know sleep over at their house,” Cheryl points out. “I’m surprised they’re even letting you film there.”  
  
“Apparently the owner’s niece is a huge fan of Harry’s, so when I mentioned him they were all for it,” Niall said.  
  
“Can I come?” Bear interrupts them.  
  
“Not this time, Bear,” Liam shook his head. “We’re going to be working for most of the time there.”  
  
“And you have school,” Cheryl adds.  
  
“But I want to be part of the band,” Bear pouts, and Niall can’t help but chuckle a little.  
  
“To be part of the band, you have to finish school,” Niall smirks.  
  
“We’re only going to be gone for a couple of days,” Liam tells him. “You can come with us when we visit my hometown, deal?”  
  
“Can it be on my birthday?” Bear’s face lights up.  
  
“We’ll see,” Liam chuckles.  
  
“And maybe Harry and I can take you golfing,” Niall suggests. He doesn’t know how, but Liam’s son seems to like golf more than he himself does. Liam always sends Niall pictures of them at the golf course near Liam’s house.  
  
“Can Freddie come too?!” Bear exclaims.  
  
“That’s something you’ll have to ask uncle Louis,” Cheryl tells him.  
  
“Can you believe next year we’re going to have a mini you and a mini Tommo running around on tour?” Niall asks Liam.  
  
“No,” Liam grins, shaking his head. “They could replace us on stage if they wanted to.”  
  
“We can give them some open water bottles and silly string, and nobody will know the difference,” Niall chuckles, making Liam laugh as well.  
  
“I know all the words to What Makes You Beautiful! My teacher loves the band so she teaches us the songs,” Bear says. He begins to sing said song, and Niall’s impressed by how Bear really knows the lyrics.  
  
The night becomes a big One Direction singalong, and Bear surpasses both Niall and Liam in remembering all the words.  
  
************  
  
Four days later, the day before Harry’s birthday, the other boys arrive at Niall’s flat to drive to Holmes Chapel. Niall offers to drive, since they’re going straight to the old bungalow, and then to Anne’s house. He decides to surprise Harry today, and maybe tomorrow they can film inside there. He tells Harry beforehand that there’s a surprise waiting for him at home and that he’ll need to be blindfolded for the last ten minutes . At first Harry just wants to know what the surprise is, but ends up giving in. The drive is long, three and a half hours, but they make the most of it. They talk, and sing songs, and Niall feels like they’re in some kind of road trip movie.  
  
Niall is finally relieved, and nervous, when they arrive. Harry is asleep in the back, with Liam sat next to him, while Louis sits in the passenger seat. Niall looks through his backpack for the headband he brought, and hands it to Liam.  
  
“I’m going to go tell the owner we’re here so they can let us see the bungalow,” Niall says, quietly so he doesn’t wake Harry up. “You two wake him up and make sure he doesn’t see where we are, or it’ll ruin the surprise.”  
  
“Wait, I want to come with you,” Louis tells him.  
  
“Why?” Niall furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“Because, you’ve never even met these people, Niall,” Louis explains.  
  
“They’re an old couple, I think it’ll be fine,” Niall says. “But I guess you can come.”  
  
They go over the plan once more, and then Niall and Louis get out of the car and go up to the front door, while Liam wakes Harry up.  
  
A man somewhere in his 50s or 60s opens the door, raising an eyebrow when he sees the two boys standing there.  
  
“Hi, I’m Niall, I was the one emailing you about the bungalow!” Niall tells him. “That’s Louis. We’re from One Direction.”  
  
“Ah you’re Neil,” the man says. Louis let’s out a chuckle at the name, but Niall doesn’t correct him.  
  
“Yep, that’s me,” Niall nods.  
  
“It’s nice you’re doing this for a friend,” the man says, sticking his hand out to shake the boys’ hands. “I’m Mike.”  
  
“Nice to meet you,” both boys say.  
  
“My niece from Liverpool loves you guys, her favorite is the curly haired one I think. If it’s not too much, can you sign some autographs after?” Mike asks.  
  
“Of course,” Niall says. Usually he’d be kind of annoyed at the not-so-clever ways people use to get an autograph or a photo, but this time all he cares about is surprising Harry.  
  
Niall looks back to the car and motions for the other two boys to come out. Seconds later, Liam comes out, guiding a blindfolded Harry towards the house.  
  
Mike leads them to the bungalow, while they talk amongst themselves. The talking stops though when they see the bungalow, the same one they were at years and years ago. The three boys just look at it for a minute all probably thinking the same thing.  
  
“Can you let us have a moment?” Niall asks Mike.  
  
“Sure, and feel free to go in there if you lads want. Just please don’t mess anything up,” Mike nods, walking back towards the house.  
  
“Where are we? When can I look?” Harry asks, and Niall can sense Harry’s about to start growing impatient.  
  
“Ok, you can take off the blindfold now,” Niall tells him.  
  
They stand behind Harry as he takes it off, raising an eyebrow when he first sees what it is. He walks a bit closer to it, and then realizes.  
  
“Wait,” Harry starts to say” “is this... the bungalow?” He asks, turning around to face the other boys.  
  
“Happy birthday!” They all shout in unison, and Niall can’t help but feel proud that it sounds rehearsed, when it isn’t.  
  
“No way?” Harry smiles, looking back at the bungalow, then back at the boys again.  
  
“You said you wanted to film here, so we are,” Niall says, smiling back at him.  
  
“It was all Niall’s idea,” Louis smirks, gently pushing Niall closer to Harry.  
  
“Thanks, Niall,” Harry says, going over to Niall and pulling him into a hug. Niall hugs back, ignoring the butterflies in his stomach as Harry holds him close.  
  
“It wasn’t all me. They helped too,” Niall says, pointing to where Louis and Liam are.  
  
The other two boys join them seconds later, and soon they’re in one big group hug together.  
  
“If only Ben was here filming this,” Louis chuckles, making the other boys laugh.  
  
“Why don’t we go inside and take a look?” Niall suggests, as they break from the hug.  
  
They all nod in agreement, and walk towards the bungalow.  
  
The first think Niall notices when they walk inside is that it looks different. And of course it does, considering a new family moved in here years ago. The couches are more spread out than they were before, and there’s now a TV when there wasn’t before. There are also pictures on the walls of people they’ve never met before.  
  
“I didn’t realize it would look so different,” Niall tells them.  
  
“It’s weird seeing it with different furniture,” Harry nods.  
  
“Do you think our initials that we wrote with permanent marker are still here?” Liam asks.  
  
“Oh yeah, we did write our initials somewhere here,” Louis exclaimed. “But I don’t remember where.”  
  
Niall remembers them writing their initials, either on the floor or wall, he can’t remember. They wanted to carve them on the floor instead, but figured it would take too much work and chose to use a permanent black marker. It probably wasn’t a good idea at the time, but they were just kids, hopeful that whatever they had would last forever.  
  
“I think it’s somewhere over there,” Harry says, walking over to an empty corner, the others following.  
  
Louis spots it first, pointing to the wood floor.  
  
“There it is!”  
  
There it is, almost 14 years later. Their initials, written in birth order, on the floor of an important place in the band’s history. Niall can hardly believe it’s still there after so long, but permanent marker is hard to erase, or maybe the owner somehow knows of the importance of these initials and keeps them. Like Harry said before, they became a band here.  
  
“Still readable after all these years,” Niall says, as they crowd around the writing.  
  
“I love you guys,” Harry blurts out, after a few seconds of silence. “And I don’t think I ever said it enough.”  
  
It catches them by surprise, but they smile.  
  
“I don’t think any of us said it enough,” Liam says, wrapping an arm around Harry’s shoulder and giving him a side hug.  
  
Liam’s right. They were for the most part a tight-knit band, but communication was never their strong suit. Every fight or disagreement they had was pushed to the side, and there was barely any time to get over things properly because next thing you know you’re shoved into a room and have to pretend everything’s fine. Of course, at the end of the day they loved each other, but if the band was too fast paced to resolve arguments properly, then it was also too fast paced to properly appreciate each other.  
  
“As fun as this whole love fest is, we’re not going to be standing here all day, are we?” Louis asks.  
  
“We should be going anyways, we’re going to film here tomorrow,” Niall tells them.  
  
They go outside and Niall goes to tell Mike, the owner, they’re leaving but will be back tomorrow. Afterwards, they get in their car and drive to Anne’s house.  
  
Later that night, the boys split up into two rooms again. It’s almost midnight, and they want to wake up early tomorrow, so they decide to go straight to bed. Harry’s in the bathroom while Niall sits on Harry’s bed, already under the covers, checking twitter for the day. He sees Liam tagged him in a tweet, making his notifications go wild.  
  
_@LiamPayne: just had a really cool day with some really cool people :) @Harry_Styles @NiallOfficial @Louis_Tomlinson Happy birthday H! We’re all grown up now love you boys_ _  
_ _  
_ He likes the tweet, then goes to tweet something himself, when Harry walks into the room and interrupts him.  
  
“I don’t think you mentioned yet how you found the bungalow? And how you convinced the owners to let us come?”  
  
“It wasn’t too difficult,” Niall shrugs, looking over at Harry, who get under the covers next to him. “I asked your mom for the address, and at first the owners were hesitant, but I promised them autographs for their niece so they said yes.”  
  
“They must really love their niece if they’re gonna let four random guys come into their backyard for two days,” Harry chuckles.  
  
“I also asked if we could stay the weekend inside the bungalow but they said no,” Niall tells him. “But at least we get to film in it.”  
  
“Thanks for making it happen,” Harry grins.  
  
“It wasn’t all me, Liam and Louis-“ Niall starts to say, but Harry stops him.  
  
“I know, Niall. I said thanks to them earlier. But it was your idea, they even said it was. And I love you for that,” Harry says, moving closer to Niall.  
  
“I’m glad you liked it,” Niall nods.  
  
“I would kiss you if I could,” Harry chuckles. He plays it off as a joke, but Niall knows he’s being serious.  
  
Niall guesses it’s inevitable, that they come back to each other eventually. It’s what he wants the most, but it’s also something he doesn’t know if he wants to go through again. He sighs, maybe this time the world will be on their side.  
  
“Then kiss me,” he tells Harry.  
  
Harry looks at Niall for a few seconds, and then leans in, stopping when their lips are barely touching. Niall almost makes the first move.  
  
Until there’s a knock at the door.  
  
“NIALL!!”    
  
It’s Louis.  
  
Harry groans, rolling his eyes as he moves away from Niall.  
  
“C’mon lads, I know you’re not asleep yet,” Louis yells, knocking again.  
  
“Come in, Louis,” Harry sighs.  
  
“Hey, Niall,” Louis opens the door. “Come room with us tonight.”  
  
“Excuse me?” Niall furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“You know, give the birthday boy some privacy,” Louis tells him.  
  
“We’re not 18 anymore, Tommo,” Niall says. “Besides, we’re not all going to fit on one bed.”  
  
“Anne gave us an extra mattress and blanket she had. I’ll sleep on it, just come with us,” Louis says. “You’ll find out why in the morning.”  
  
“This is ridiculous,” Niall sighs, looking over at Harry, and then getting up from the bed. He grabs his phone and charger, and walks over to where Louis is standing at the door. “The reason better be important.”  
  
“Why, Niall? Was I interrupting something?” Louis smirks.  
  
“No, I just don’t get why we’re doing this,” Niall scoffs, before looking back at Harry once more. “Night, Harry.”  
  
“Night, Harold.” Louis says, leading Niall out the door. “You’ll understand tomorrow morning, I promise.”  
  
“Goodnight,” Harry says, and Niall can hear the sarcasm in his voice.  
  
Niall closes the door and follows Louis to the guest room down the hall.  
  
“What’s going on?” Niall asks, closing the door to the room behind them. He sees the mattress that Louis talked about on the floor, next to the bed where Liam is already laying down, looking at his phone.  
  
“We want to do something fun tomorrow morning for Harry’s birthday, and we want you to join,” Louis explains.  
  
“You couldn’t have just texted me and told me the plan?” Niall furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“I didn’t think you’d refuse to room with us this much,” Louis smirks. “You sure I didn’t interrupt anything?”  
  
“No, Louis. He’s just probably confused why we left him all alone,” Niall says.  
  
“He’ll know in the morning, don’t worry.” Louis reassures him.  “Like you said, we’re not 18 years old anymore.”  
  
“I hope he won’t be mad at us though,” Liam says.  
  
“This is the same guy who chose to stay in instead of going out with all of us during tour. He’ll be fine,” Louis says.  
  
“What’re you guys planning on doing?” Niall asks, changing the subject.  
  
Louis walks over to a bag next to the bed, and gets out a couple of things, a can of silly string being one of them.  
  
“Louis, we’re not-“ Niall starts to say, but Louis interrupts him  
  
“Have some fun, Niall. You’re 30, not 80,” Louis tells him. “We’re supposed to be having fun and bonding while doing these trips. And we did this for his 17th birthday years ago and it was great.”  
  
“I know,” Niall nods.  
  
“So let’s have some fun,” Louis says again.  
  
“Ok,” Niall agrees, walking over to the side of the bed that isn’t occupied by Liam. When he goes to lay down, he notices a few pillows going down the middle of the bed.  
  
“What’s with the pillows?” he asks, furrowing his eyebrows.  
  
“Liam’s a clingy sleeper,” Louis shrugs, turning off the light and laying down on the mattress on the floor. “You’ll thank me later.”  
  
“I can’t believe you’re sleeping on the floor all ‘cause you want to silly string Harry tomorrow morning,” Niall chuckles, laying down on the bed.  
  
“Go to sleep, Niall,” Louis says.  
  
“He’s done stranger things,” Liam smirks, rolling onto his side to go to sleep.  
  
Niall shakes his head, taking his phone and opening it to send Harry a text.  
  
_Sorry I left :( you’ll find out why tomorrow_ _  
_  
He doesn’t expect a reply, figures Harry probably is sleeping, but seconds later he gets one.  
  
_It’s ok. I’m going to bed anyways, goodnight. Tell Liam I said goodnight and tell Louis that I hate him for stealing you away. X_ _  
_  
Niall laughs at the last part. He texts back goodnight and puts his phone away, trying to fall asleep while thinking about him and Harry.  
  
The next morning, the three of them wake up at nine and get ready for the day, while Harry still sleeps.  At half past nine, they enter Harry’s room, cans of silly string in their hands. Niall feels bad, even though this is supposed to be a fun surprise. He knows how much Harry loves his sleep, or he did at least, but he doesn’t think too much has changed. And Harry looks so peaceful while sleeping, he doesn’t want to disturb him.  
  
“Harry,” Louis exclaims, trying to wake Harry up. “Wake up, lad. C’mon!”  
  
Harry groans, shuffling around before opening his eyes.  
  
“What?” he asks, looking over at them.  
  
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” They all shout in unison, and start spraying Harry with silly string.  
  
Harry yawns, and looks over at the sheets, which are now covered in silly string.  
  
“What’re you guys doing?”  
  
“Recreating your 17th birthday,” Louis smirks, spraying Harry with more silly string. “Happy birthday!”  
  
“I hate you guys,” Harry says, getting the silly string off of him.  
  
“You love us,” Louis says.  
  
“Is this why Niall couldn’t sleep here? Cause you guys wanted to do this?” Harry asks, sitting up in bed.  
  
“Yeah, pretty much,” Liam nods.  
  
“You guys are like children,” Harry chuckles, shaking his head at them.  
  
“That’s what I said,” Niall smirks, sitting down next to Harry.  
  
“You guys are no fun,” Louis scoffs.  
  
Harry gets out of bed, telling Louis that his room better be silly string free by the time he gets back, and leaves to go to the bathroom.  
  
They clean the mess up, and then Louis and Liam head downstairs, Niall telling them he’ll be right there. Harry’s in the shower, and Niall waits in his room, scrolling through twitter.  
  
He just finishes up replying to a few fans on twitter, when he hears the shower go off. A few minutes later, Harry walks in, hair still wet and nothing on but a towel around his waist.  
  
“Hey, where’d the other guys go?” Harry asks, furrowing his eyebrows.  
  
“Downstairs,” Niall says, standing up from Harry’s bed. “I told them I’d wait for you.”  
  
“You didn’t have to Niall,” Harry shakes his head.  
  
“I know, but we didn’t exactly get to finish what we were going to do last night,” Niall smirks, walking closer to Harry.  
  
“What do you mean?” Harry asks.  
  
Niall moves so there’s barely any space between them, and cups Harry’s face with his hands. Harry leans into his touch, and all they’re hoping is they don’t get interrupted again. Niall presses their lips together, leaving them there for a few seconds, before pulling away.  
  
“Happy birthday, Harry,” he says, creating space between them once again.  
  
“Thanks,” Harry grins, and Niall can’t help but blush.  
  
“I’ll let you get ready now,” Niall tells him. “The other lads are probably wondering what’s taking so long.”  
  
“Yeah, I’ll be right there,” Harry nods, his smile not leaving his face.  
  
Niall wants to kiss him again. But instead, he just smiles at him, and walks out of the room. And for a moment, he feels like they’ll be ok.  
  
A few hours later, after Harry had gotten ready and they all ate breakfast, they make their way to the bungalow again. This time, Ben meets them there to film for the documentary.  
  
“I was actually in a band before One Direction,” Harry starts to say. They’re sitting on a couch in the bungalow, while Harry talks about his days before 1D. “And my step-dad would let us rehearse right here in his bungalow. As long as we didn’t disturb any neighbors.”  
  
“And now you’re here,” Ben says.  
  
“Now we’re here,” Harry chuckles.  
  
“We filmed you guys here in 2011 I believe, and you guys were just starting out. It’s incredible to think how much has happened since then,” Ben tells them.  
  
Harry tells them about how he always dreamed of being a performer, and how much he loved to sing. He tells them about the music he was brought up on, and how it influenced him.  
  
And of course, just like when they filmed in Niall’s hometown, Ben asks the other three what they think of Harry, and Harry adds that they have to be extra nice since it’s his birthday.  
  
“Well Harry’s always been the youngest, so he’s like a little brother to me,” Liam says. “I’m really proud of him.”  
  
“Yeah, I always felt like a big brother to him. Even at the lowest points of our friendship, I still felt proud of him,” Louis adds.  
  
“I’m proud of him too,” Niall nods. “And I’m glad I always have a partner in crime.”  
  
Harry smiles at their comments.  
  
“Anything else?” Ben asks.  
  
“Yeah I have a question,” Louis says.  
  
“Go on,” Ben nods.  
  
“You were in a band, but left it to go audition?” Louis asks, looking over at Harry.  
  
“I technically never left,” Harry shrugs. “I wasn’t expecting to get very far.”  
  
“Did you give them the same break talk you gave us then?” Louis smirks, making everyone laugh, including Harry. Eight years ago, it might’ve been a sore subject, but now they’re all grown up and successful in their own rights, so they just laugh about it.  
  
“Actually, yeah,” Harry chuckles. “No, I’m kidding. I don’t think they thought I would get very far either.”  
  
They don’t film there for much longer, mainly because the owners are hesitant about their home being on film. So they finish up, sign a few autographs they promised they’d sign, and go to their next location.  
  
They go to Harry’s school and surprise everybody. Niall is again amazed at how much people still love them. He doesn’t think he’ll ever get over it. They go to the bakery Harry used to work at and say hi to everyone there. There’s a poster of Harry in the back of the store, from when he first went on the X-Factor, and Niall suggests he, Louis and Liam stand in front of it and take a selfie, so he can post it on twitter later for laughs. A few people come up to them, asking for pictures and autographs, and Niall feels like he did when they were first starting out. Their last stop is a record store, where Harry explains he and his step-dad would go to buy records when he was younger. They coincidently find a Made in the A.M. vinyl, and decide on buying it. Harry goes up to the cash register and the cashier scans it, not realizing Harry is on the cover of it. They all laugh about it as they leave the store.  
  
On the way back to Harry’s house, Niall tweets the photo he took in the bakery.  
  
_@NiallOfficial: Happy birthday H ! We’re getting older but you still look the same ! @Harry_Styles @Louis_Tomlinson @LiamPayne_  
  
Harry’s mum throws a small party for Harry later that evening, with close family and friends. The main topic that comes up is of course, the One Direction reunion.  
  
Everyone leaves by ten, leaving the boys to relax on the couch in the living room after a long day. They end up playing the record they bought earlier in the day, but Harry turns it off halfway through, and suggests jamming out to their own songs themselves. And for the rest of the night, that’s what they did, with Niall and Harry on guitar.  
  
************  
  
“Today was a good day,” Harry says. They’re both in laying in his bed, facing each other. It’s almost three in the morning, qnd they’re pretty tired.  
  
“It must’ve been really special for you,” Niall grins.  
  
“Did you really mean what you said?” Harry asks.  
  
“What did I say?” Niall furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“That I’m your partner in crime,” Harry says.  
  
“Oh. Yeah, of course I meant it. You’re my best friend,” Niall tells him. He wants to say more, but not yet.  
  
“I love you,” Harry says, moving closer and wrapping an arm around him.  
  
Their faces are close together, and Niall wants to kiss him, but he can’t just yet. He has to know Harry and him are on the same page.  
  
“I.... I really want us to work, Harry,” Niall tells him.  
  
“So do I,” Harry sighs.  
  
“To be honest, I don’t even know why we ended things in the first place, when we’re back to the same situation again,” Niall tells him.  
  
“We were scared , Niall. It was a whole new chapter of our lives and we didn’t want either of us to get hurt,” Harry reminds him.  
  
“You were scared,” Niall says. “ I mean so was I, but you’re the one who suggested we take a break.”  
  
“I was scared of hurting and disappointing you,” Harry says.  
  
“And now you’re not?” Niall asks.  
  
“Now we’ve both grown up a little,” Harry tells him. “Things are completely different now.”  
  
Niall sighs. If it’s meant to be, it’ll be, he thinks.  
  
He leans in, connecting their lips together. It’s a short kiss, him pulling away seconds later.  
  
“I love you, too.”  
  
He kisses Harry again, and again, opening his mouth to let him in. Niall’s missed this, missed Harry. He deepens the kiss, as Harry’s hand comes up to caress his jaw. They kiss for a minute, until Niall pulls away.  
  
“We can’t tell Louis and Liam we’re doing this though, not yet,” Niall says.  
  
“Why not?” Harry furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“Because right now it should be about the band, and not us. And you know it will become about us if we tell them,” Niall tells him. He knows their friends always mean well, but he really wants them to work this out without any outside influences, for now at least.  
  
“You think they won’t find out?” Harry asks.  
  
“Not if we’re careful,” Niall says.  
  
“I guess we can hide it for a little bit,” Harry agrees, yawning right after.  
  
“We should get some sleep,” Niall suggests.  
  
“Goodnight,” Harry says, leaning in to give him a quick kiss.  
  
“Goodnight,” Niall replies, wrapping an arm around Harry.  
  
The stay in Cheshire for a couple more days, then head off back home to London.  
  
“So what do ya say, lads, a week off and its back to filming?” Louis asks them when they’re almost to Niall’s home in London. This time Niall is sitting in the back with Harry, while Louis drives and Liam sits in the passenger seat. Harry’s fallen asleep, just like he did on the way to Cheshire.    
  
“Sounds good,” Niall nods. He’s the one that suggested they take breaks between filming, mainly so they aren’t always in each other’s space since they’ll have to be for a while in the next year, and also don’t want to feel like they’re doing everything in a fast pace like they were before.  
  
“Can we go to Wolverhampton next?” Liam asks.  
  
“Yeah, and then Donny last, best for last of course,” Louis chuckles.  
  
As they get closer, and Louis and Liam are talking away about something, Niall decides it’s the perfect time to wake Harry up. He’s asleep on Niall’s shoulder, with an arm around Niall’s torso, and he’s relieved Harry clings to everyone while sleeping, so it doesn’t look suspicious.  
  
“Harry,” he whispers, slowly moving his hand to ruffle Harry’s hair. “Harry wake up, we’re almost here.”  
  
He sees Harry move his head a bit, slowly opening his eyes. Niall can’t help but smile at Harry’s sleepy face, and he wishes he could kiss him, but knows they’ll get caught.  
  
Harry sits up as Niall looks at where Louis and Liam are sitting, noticing that the two boys have stopped talking. Liam’s looking at them from the rearview mirror, and Louis has a huge grin on his face.  
  
“So I see you boys are back to your clingy ways.” Louis smirks, pulling into Niall’s driveway.  
  
“Some things never change,” Niall shrugs, again relieved that Harry is naturally this way with everyone. “Harry’s just a clingy sleeper.”  
  
“Yeah, I almost fell asleep on Liam on the way there,” Harry nods.  
  
Louis rolls his eyes playfully, turning the car off.  
  
“So, a week off?” Niall asks, trying to change the subject.  
  
“Grimmy wants to throw me a party next Saturday with all my London friends so can we go to the next place on Monday,” Harry says.  
  
“A party we’re not invited to?” Louis scoffs.  
  
“You are, but do you really want to go?” Harry furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“No, sounds lame,” Louis shrugs, making Niall chuckle.  
  
“I’ll have to tell my mom we’re coming, so let me know when,” Liam interrupts them.  
  
“Monday is good. We can spend the night at Liam’s and go to Doncaster the next day, and then we can just go back to London from there,” Louis tells them.  
  
“You don’t want to stay overnight there, Louis?” Niall asks.  
  
“Where would we stay?” Louis asks.  
  
It’s silent in the car for a moment. It’s been years, and Louis hates talking about it, so sometimes it just slips their minds. For Niall, it’s still shocking that it even happened.  
  
“What about Mark? Does he still live there?” Liam suggests.  
  
“He moved near London last year to be closer to my sisters since they’re all here now,” Louis says. “And I would ask Dan but I don’t want to be a bother.”  
  
“We need to do something special there, Louis,” Harry says.  
  
“It’s fine, lads. It’s not about me, it’s about the band,” Louis tells them. “El is probably waiting for me so I should go.”  
  
“Louis,” Niall starts to say.  
  
“Can we not do this right now, Niall,” Louis protests, and Niall thinks he hasn’t seen Louis this serious in a while.  
  
“Ok,” Niall nods, dropping the subject.  
  
They all get out of the car, Louis throwing the keys to Niall. Niall offers if they want to go inside for some drinks, knowing Louis and Liam will say no and Harry could easily stay behind without anyone asking questions. Fortunately for him, his plan works, both boys declining because they wanted to go home to their families.  
  
“I hope Louis is ok,” Harry says, when they walk into Niall’s house.  
  
“I’m sure he’ll be fine, but going back to Doncaster is going to be tough,” Niall tells him. “But we’ll be there for him.”  
  
************  
  
For the next few days, Niall and Harry spend all their time together. They mainly relax at Niall’s house, not wanting to go out and be seen together. They order takeout and watch movies, and just enjoy being in each other’s company again.  
  
On Saturday, they go to Harry’s house so Harry can get ready for the party Grimmy is throwing him. They get a bit distracted with other things though, and Harry doesn’t realize he’s late until he checks the time and sees he’s supposed to be there already.  
  
“Harry, Grimmy’s calling you,” Niall chuckles, waiting by the stairs with Harry’s phone in his hand.  
  
“Probably wants to make sure I’m still coming,” Harry laughs, coming downstairs in a Gucci button down shirt and black pants. He grabs his phone and texts Grimmy that he’s about leave, and puts his phone in his pocket. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the party?”  
  
“I’m sure, Harry. These are your friends, you’re barely going to see them for the next year because of the band,” Niall tells him.  
  
“But you’ll just be sitting at my house all alone,” Harry says, wrapping an arm around him.  
  
“I know, but I’ll be fine,” Niall says, pulling him in for a kiss.  
  
“I’ll miss you though,” Harry smirks.  
  
“Don’t be dramatic,” Niall chuckles.  
  
They kiss again, and then Harry finally leaves, Niall laughing at how he’s about to be late for his own party.  
  
Niall ends up sitting on the couch in Harry’s living room, watching a random movie he’s found on TV. The truth is, he did want to go with Harry, but he’s never really been out with Harry when he was with his London friends, and it’s not that they wouldn’t accept him, but he just wouldn’t fit in there.  
  
Harry texts him a bit at first, then stops, and Niall guesses his friends told him to put his phone away. Understandable, seeing as though Harry is always on it, and Niall knows from experience that Harry on his phone is a Harry that’s no fun. Niall stays up until midnight, then decides on going to sleep, sending Harry a text goodnight and that he’ll see him in the morning.  
  
The next day, Harry wakes up with a hangover, and they spend the first half of the day mostly in bed, cuddling and binge watching a new show on Netflix. In the evening, Louis sends a text to the group chat they made a while ago, asking what time they should be at Niall’s house. Niall tells them at around ten in the morning, so they don’t get to Wolverhampton too late, and then realizes they’re still at Harry’s. Harry suggests telling the others to come to his place the next morning, but Niall shakes his head, remembering that he still needs to pack his things for the next few days. They end up going back to Niall’s house, after Harry packs his things, and Niall’s relieved they don’t live very far from each other.  
  
The next morning, they’re woken up by a doorbell.  
  
“What time is it?” Niall asks, panicking that they overslept. He takes his phone from the bedside table where it’s charging, and checks. It’s ten minutes after 9, so Niall is confused, but then he sees a text that was sent ten minutes ago. It’s from Liam .  
  
_Hey mate sorry if you’re still sleeping but Bear’s coming along with us and he wanted to buy breakfast for all of us :)_ _  
_  
Niall laughs at the way Liam words it, like Bear bought the breakfast himself and paid for it with his own money. He’s a smart kid though, Niall thinks, so anything’s possible.  
  
“Liam’s here,” Niall says, turning over to Harry, who’s slowly waking up.  
  
“Of course he’s a whole hour early, wouldn’t expect anything less from him,” Harry chuckles, sitting up in bed.  
  
“Bear’s with him and I guess he wanted to come early,”” Niall tells him, getting out of bed and texting Liam that he’ll be right there.  
  
“Wait, what’re we going to tell him when he sees that I’m here?” Harry asks.  
  
Niall freezes, he didn’t think of that.  
  
“I have no idea.”  
  
“My car isn’t even here, we took yours,” Harry tells him.  
  
“Well don’t you get lonely being in an empty house? I’ll just tell him you were staying the night because of that,” Niall says.  
  
“You think he’ll believe it?” Harry asks.  
  
“Probably not,” Niall shrugs, putting on a shirt and jeans he finds on the floor. “But he won’t press us about it like Louis would.”  
  
“Imagine if it was Louis at the door,” Harry chuckles.  
  
“I don’t even want to think about it,” Niall laughs, going over to Harry and giving him a kiss. “Come down when you’re ready.”  
  
“I’ll be right there,” Harry nods.  
  
Niall goes downstairs, sighing a little. He knows Liam means well, and that they’d have to wake up at around this time anyways, but he was hoping they at least get to cuddle a little bit this morning, plus it’s such short notice.  
  
“Hey!” Niall says, opening the door. Liam and Bear stand in front of him, both grinning.  
  
“Hi, uncle Niall! I’m going to be in the band today!” Bear exclaims, stepping into his house. Niall sees he’s carrying a bag that looks like it’s from Dunkin Donuts.  
  
“Are you?” Niall asks, furrowing his eyebrows jokingly.  
  
“Yes, I even bought breakfast and everything,” Bear tells him.  
  
“Hey, Niall,” Liam interrupts, putting an arm around him.  
  
“Hey, Liam.” Niall nods. “Thanks for breakfast.”  
  
“Oh, don’t thank me, thank Bear,” Liam says. “It was his money.”  
  
“Oh really?” Niall asks, looking over at Bear.  
  
“I used my tooth fairy money,” Bear smiles, showing all his teeth.  
  
“He thinks this is like an initiation into the band,” Liam chuckles.  
  
“Well you’re definitely on the right track, buddy,” Niall tells him.  
  
“I should’ve texted the other boys, maybe they could’ve came earlier too,” Liam says.  
  
“Well,” Niall starts to say. He knows he has to tell him, or he’ll find out on his own eventually. “Harry’s actually already here.”  
  
“What? How?” Liam furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“He.. he slept over here,” Niall tells him. “He doesn’t like to sleep in empty houses you know? He likes it when there’s other people there.”  
  
“Oh. Makes sense,” Liam nods. Niall sighs in relief how easy that was.  
  
“Uncle Harry is here? Where is he?” Bear asks.  
  
“He’s upstairs, he should be down any minute now,” Niall says.  
  
“Is there something going on with you two?” Liam asks.  
  
“No,” Niall shakes his head. “He just wanted to sleep here, that’s all.”  
  
“You’d tell us though if something was happening, right?” Liam asks.  
  
“Yeah, of course,” Niall nods. He hates lying, but they’ll tell him and Louis eventually. He hopes Liam doesn’t mention this to Louis, or else they won’t be able to hide it any longer  
  
Harry comes downstairs, a few minutes later, and they start on the donuts Liam and Bear bought. Niall texts Louis to get over this his house quick, because everyone is already here. A half hour later, they’re all sitting around the kitchen counter eating donuts, and bacon that Harry cooks for them. Louis doesn’t question why Harry’s car isn’t in the driveway, or why Harry is cooking like it’s his own house, so Niall thinks they’re ok with not telling the others about them just yet.  
  
They leave around 11, Liam driving this time.  
  
“So are you missing school then, Bear?” Louis asks, looking back at where Liam’s son was sitting by the window, Niall and Harry next to him. “Because I would’ve loved for Freddie to come but he has school until his spring break in April.”  
  
“Nope,” Bear shakes his head. “It’s half term, so we have a week break.”  
  
“It’s half term? That means all schools have off right?” Louis says, turning to Liam. “We won’t be able to go visit my school or yours.”  
  
“Oh. Yeah. It slipped my mind,” Liam sighs. “I was really looking forward to surprising everyone and showing Bear where I used to go to school.”  
  
“What’re we going to do?” Louis asks, turning to Niall and Harry.  
  
“We can always go back another time,” Harry suggests.  
  
“I can skip school,” Bear interrupts.  
  
“No you can’t, Bear,” Liam tells him.  
  
“Oh, c’mon, Liam. Don’t act like you’ve never missed a day of school to go do something more fun instead,” Louis smirks. “Besides, I’m sure the school will understand.”  
  
“Cheryl also doesn’t want him missing any days,” Liam says.  
  
A couple of hours later, they arrive at Liam’s parents’ house in Wolverhampton. Ben meets them there, and they go up to Liam’s room to film his part. Bear sits quietly, offscreen, watching them talk.  
  
“I always knew singing was what I wanted to do. “Liam explains. “I would sing everywhere and anywhere, and eventually my dad got me gigs around the city. It was a dream of mine and I’m so glad I went back a second time to The X-Factor or who knows what I would be doing right now.”  
  
Liam tells them about his childhood, how tough it was in school when he would get picked on, and how music was a great escape for him. He talks about how he never thought he would be able to live his dream, and his past self wouldn’t believe it.  
  
“Now is it the part where we have to say nice things about him?” Louis smirks, looking over at Ben.  
  
“It is, Louis,” Ben chuckles.  
  
“I’ll start,” Harry say. “First off, imagine picking on someone and then them becoming world famous only a few years later. That’s why you should always treat people with kindness, you never know what boy band they’ll end up being in.”  
  
“He’s got a point,” Louis shrugs.  
  
“Second off,” Harry continues. “I really appreciate Liam for taking things seriously when we first got put together, and for always having our backs. He was like the dad of the band and he always checked up on us.”  
  
“And now he’s actually a dad,” Ben points out.  
  
“Now I’m actually a dad,” Liam repeats, grinning.  
  
“He always kept us together,” Niall says. “And he still does. I mean the reunion talk started on his birthday.”  
  
Liam smiles, putting an arm around both Harry and Niall’s shoulders.  
  
“I think if I could go back in time and stop whoever was picking on Liam, I would,” Louis says, and Niall can see the sincerity in his eyes.m m  
  
“Louis,” Liam grins. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”  
  
“Oh, piss off, Liam. It is not,” Louis scoffs.  
  
“One of the nicest things,” Liam says.  
  
“Still not a lad though,” Louis smirks, making everyone laugh.  
  
“Why don’t we let Bear talk,” Ben suggests, motioning for Bear to come over to them. “What do you think, Bear? Your dads pretty cool, huh?”  
  
“The coolest,” Bear says off camera, making Liam smile more.  
  
Liam pulls them all into a group hug, asking Ben if he’s filming this as a joke.  
  
Next, Liam takes them around his hometown. They go past his old schools, and some of the places he used to perform at when he was younger. They go to the shopping center Liam used to go to, and performed at a few times, and do a surprise performance there. They sign some photos and take a few pictures, and Niall still can’t believe people like them this much even after all these years.  
  
The next day, they drive over to Doncaster. It’s only the four of them along with Ben this time, while Bear stays behind at Liam’s parents’ house for the day. Louis drives, and the first place they go to is the Doncaster Rovers stadium.  
  
“I used to go here all the time and watch soccer,” Louis tells them. They’re sitting on the bleachers of the stadium. “I wish we would’ve played this one.”  
  
“Maybe someday we will,” Niall tells him.  
  
“Mum would love that,” Louis smiles.  
  
Louis takes them past his school, and shows them the places he worked at when he was younger. He shows them where he and his friends would go to hang out, and just like in Liam’s hometown, they go to the shopping center in Doncaster and do a surprise performance.  
  
The last stop is at Louis’ childhood home, which currently is for sale, so they’re able to negotiate a way to go inside and film. Niall can sense Louis’ mood changes when they get there.  
  
“Mum always believed in me the most, she always thought I could do anything,” Louis says. They’re all in what used to be Louis’ old room, standing around. “She’s the one who convinced me to try out for X-Factor.”  
  
Louis looks down at the ground, then back up at them. He tells them about his insecurities and how his mum made him more confident. She was his biggest fan. He tells them how he always loved to sing, and how every teacher he had told him he’d never get anywhere with a career in performing, and he’s so happy he proved them wrong. He talks about his mum a little, about how she was his best friend and always stuck by him. By the end of it, Niall can tell Louis is getting emotional.  
  
“She’s so proud of you, Louis,” Niall tells him.  
  
“I know,” Louis replies, his voice a little shaky.  
  
“We’re all proud of you,” Liam smiles at him.  
  
“I wish she was here to see this,” Louis sighs. “She always knew we’d get back together eventually.”  
  
It’s silent for a moment, and Niall knows Louis’ holding back tears, so he pulls him in for a hug.  
  
“We love ya, Tommo,” Niall tells him.  
  
“Don’t get sappy on me, Niall,” Louis mumbles.  
  
“It’s for the documentary,” Niall smirks.  
  
“Well the cameras still rolling so  you might as well say your compliments now then,” Louis chuckles, sniffling before looking up at Ben, who’s holding the camera.  
  
“The band wouldn’t be the same without you,” Niall starts, letting go of Louis. “We’d be so lost. And we definitely wouldn’t be the same band we are now.”  
  
“You were always there for me,” Liam adds. “And even when I didn’t want you to, you could always make me smile.”  
  
Louis looks down at the ground to hide his smile.  
  
“He was the leader when we first started out,” Harry says. “Almost like a big brother.”  
  
“Thanks, Tommo, for not letting us become a typical boy band,” Niall chuckles, putting an arm around Louis.  
  
“Remember when Niall wanted to dress like Louis when we first got put together,” Harry says, making everyone laugh.  
  
Niall shakes his head, thinking back to a time when he, and all the other boys for that matter, looked up to Louis.  
  
They go back to Wolverhampton after, and stay the night there again. Then the next morning they head back to London.  
  
************  
  
“I think Liam and Louis might be on to us,” Harry says. They’re back at Niall’s house, and the other two boys just left, after Niall offered them to stay for a beer like last time.  
  
“What? Why do you think that?” Niall furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“This is the second time you offered them to come over and they both declined,” Harry shrugs. “Maybe they think we want to be alone.”  
  
“I don’t think so. You know Louis, he’d definitely say something,” Niall tells him.  
  
“Unless they’re just waiting for us to tell them,” Harry suggests.  
  
Niall thinks about it, but knows Louis wouldn’t be able to resist not saying anything. It’s been pretty easy keeping their relationship a secret for the most part, mainly because around the other two, they didn’t act any different from how they would act if they were just friends. And when they’re not doing reunion related things, Louis and Liam are busy with their own families to notice anything. And Niall couldn’t be happier that it’s their own little secret for now, because as much as he loves his friends, he doesn’t want to get the band involved just yet.  
  
But they start to get sloppy with hiding it as time goes on. Paparazzi catch them in London together, and they really should known better, but the only thing that came out of it was more articles speculating a 1D reunion. Louis texts Niall the next day;  
  
_Where you guys out on a date? ;)_ _  
_  
Niall sighs, and texts him what he thinks is a good enough excuse.  
  
_Just doing some writing for the new album ! Miss ya lads !_ _  
_  
Niall hopes Louis doesn’t ask more about it, and he’s relieved when he gets a text back.  
  
_You miss us after 2 weeks but didn’t talk to us for months before the reunion !_ _  
_  
He shakes his head, sending a laughing emoji as his response.  
  
Sometimes it’s small things they do, that’s not even intentional, that afterwards Niall hopes doesn’t look suspicious. Like when Louis and Liam suggests a Skype call to talk about band stuff and Harry was at Niall’s house. Harry suggests meeting up, but Louis was in California so he can’t, and they have to say they were writing again as an excuse. Or when Liam invites them over for Bear’s birthday party, and they arrive together without thinking about it. Louis raises an eyebrow at that, but Harry told him Niall’s house was on the way so they carpooled.  
  
It’s not until they’re two months into being together, that they finally get caught.  
  
It’s early April, and in a couple of days they’re back to filming for their documentary after having some time off. They decide to go golfing, and call Liam to ask if he and Bear, who’s been begging Niall to go golfing for weeks now, wants to join, not bothering to ask Louis because they know he always says no.  
  
Liam gets to Niall’s house with Bear around noon, and they go to a golf course nearby. They’re spotted by a couple people, oddly enough, but lately their names have been all over the place so Niall’s not really surprised. Later they go back to Niall’s house, and Liam gets a call from someone he’s producing an album for, some up and coming artist that Liam swears will be as big as Justin Bieber, asking him to come down to the studio to work on some last minute things. Liam says it’ll only be a few hours, so Bear stays with them while Liam leaves to the studio. According to Liam, Bear’s been getting into Harry Potter, so Niall turns on the couple of movies that he has on DVD, and they all sit and watch. Halfway through, Bear goes to the bathroom, so they put the movie on pause.  
  
“Today was fun,” Harry says, resting his head on Niall’s shoulder. Watching movies for a long period of time always makes Harry sleepy, and this time it was no different.  
  
Niall puts an arm around Harry, and plays with his hair a little. He knows they have to be careful being intimate when Liam’s son is still here, but they figure they can cuddle for a few minutes.  
  
“I don’t think I’ve ever met a kid that loves golf as much as Bear,” Niall chuckles, putting an arm around Harry.  
  
“I can’t wait until it’s our kids becoming golf prodigies,” Harry smirks, saying it so confidently that Niall thinks he’s joking at first.  
  
“Our kids? Do you think about that stuff?” Niall asks. He won’t lie, he’s thought about it back when they were in the band, when he thought nothing could hurt them, but not in the last two months they’ve been together.  
  
“Not until today,” Harry looks up at him. “Promise, I know we’re taking things slow.”  
  
Niall smiles. He appreciates that coming from Harry, even though it’s such a small thing. He’s still nervous they might be going too fast. But at the same time he thinks they’re perfect where they’re at.  
  
Before Niall can say anything, Harry leans in and connects their lips together. They don’t kiss for long, or at least Niall doesn’t think so, but it’s not long until they get interrupted.  
  
“Did you guys forget I was here.”  
  
Niall’s eyes widen. It completely slipped his mind that Bear can walk in on them, and that’s exactly what happens. They quickly create some space between them, and turn to where Bear is standing, right outside the entrance to the living room, his eyebrows raised like he knows exactly what’s going on.    
  
“Hey, Bear. How long have you been standing there for?” Niall asks calmly.  
  
“Long enough to see something I probably wasn’t supposed to,” Bear shrugs.  
  
“Then can you keep this a secret? Pretend you never saw it?” Harry asks.  
  
“Or...” Niall starts to say. He sighs, thinking maybe it’s time to tell at least one of the boys. It’s not hard to keep it a secret, but he’s definitely starting to feel guilty about not keeping them in the loop. At least it’s Liam, who’s less likely to ask questions and let them work things out themselves, who they’d be telling. “We could just tell Liam?”  
  
“You think we should?” Harry asks, looking over at him.  
  
“Yeah, and tell Louis sometime soon too. It’s been two months, I feel kind of bad keeping them out of the loop for this long,” Niall says.  
  
“Yeah, me too,” Harry nods.  
  
“Can we finish watching Harry Potter now,” Bear asks, walking over to the couch.  
  
“Yeah, of course,” Niall nods, turning towards the TV and grabbing the remote to unpause it.  
  
They’re almost done with the last movie, when Liam comes back. They let Bear finish watching, while they bring Liam over to the kitchen to talk.  
  
“So what do you guys want to tell me?” Liam furrows his eyebrows. “Was Bear good?”  
  
“Yeah, he was fine. Don’t worry, this isn’t about him.” Niall starts to say.  
  
“What is it?” Liam asks.  
  
“Niall and I have been dating for two months,” Harry blurts out before Niall can even say a word.  
  
Liam’s eyes widen for a moment, and then Liam chuckles a little.  
  
“I know,”  
  
“What?” Niall and Harry both ask in unison.  
  
“We figured something was going on. C’mon, Louis and I aren’t dumb, we just didn’t want to say anything before you guys wanted to tell us,” Liam tells us.  
  
“And if we never did?” Harry asks.  
  
“You’re telling me right now aren’t you?” Liam says.  
  
“Well Bear kind of walked in on us kissing so we just decided to tell you before he does,” Niall shrugs.  
  
“Hey, my son can keep a secret,” Liam chuckles. “But thanks for telling me.”  
  
“Guess we’ll tell Louis on Monday,” Niall says.  
  
“You guys are ok though, right?” Liam asks.  
  
“We’re taking it slow, so it shouldn’t effect the band,” Harry says.  
  
“I’m not talking about the band. The band isn’t important if you guys aren’t ok,” Liam tells them.  
  
“Yes, Liam. We’re ok. Like Harry said, we’re taking it slow,” Niall nods.  
  
“I’m just making sure,” Liam says. “I’m happy you guys worked things out.”

************  
  
On Monday, they all meet at Harry’s house, Harry telling them that the secret location is close to where he lives. Before they leave though, Niall and Harry fill Louis in on what’s been going on.  
  
“I knew it!” Louis smirks. “But cheers on going two months thinking you were actually hiding this from us I guess.”  
  
“I told you guys we knew,” Liam says.  
  
“How did you guys even know?” Niall asks.  
  
“Well, at first we really didn’t think much of it, but you two were more clingy than usual and it was just little things we started to notice,” Louis explains.  
  
“Guess we’ll need to be more sneaky next time,” Harry jokes.  
  
Niall feels a bit relieved that they finally told the other boys.  
  
Ben meets them at Harry’s, and offers to drive them all to the secret location. Harry has already told Ben where they’re going, and he talks about how excited he is to film this on the way there. Niall has no clue where Harry and Ben are taking them. But, when he sees Ben park next to a certain crosswalk, with a white building next to it that has history from before any of them were even born, he wonders how he didn’t think of this place himself. Of course Harry would take them here.  
  
Abbey Road Studios. He remembers Harry talking about how cool it would be to record a song at Abbey Road, back when they were first put together as a band.  
  
“Abbey Road? Really, Harry?” Louis smirks.  
  
“I know a guy who can give us a tour,” Harry grins, looking back at them from the passenger seat.  
  
They all get out of the car, Niall looking around to see if anyone is around who will notice them. There’s been a wave of news about them lately, but them at Abbey Road Studios would’ve created more rumors than there already where.  
  
Harry takes his phone out as they walk towards the building, and starts typing out a text to who Niall assumes is the guy who’s going to take them on a tour of the place. A minute minutes later, a an older guy, maybe ten years older than them, walks out from inside the studio.  
  
“Hey, Harry!” The guy shouts, walking over to them.  
  
“Hey, Dan, nice to see you again,” Harry said, shaking the guy’s hand.  
  
“You too. And I see you brought the rest of the lads with you this time,” the older guy chuckles. “Or should I say, the rest of the Beatles.”  
  
They all let out a laugh at that. They never understood the comparison, obviously, but it’s a funny joke considering there’s four of them.  
  
Niall, Liam, and Louis introduce themselves, and they go inside the studio, Ben following them with his camera.  
  
“So are we actually going to see where they made all their albums?” Liam asks.  
  
“Yeah, the exact room,” Dan nods, walking them around the building.  
  
“That’s so sick,” Louis says.  
  
“There’s this aurora about the place, isn’t there?” Harry says.  
  
Niall nods.  
  
The last room Dan takes them to is Studio 2.  
  
“This is where the magic happened,” he tells them.  
  
It’s a big room, and Niall can just imagine all the history that went down in it. All the music made, all the discussions and fights that happened, he could definitely feel that aurora Harry was talking about earlier.  
  
“Would be cool if we could film us singing in here for the documentary,” Louis suggests.  
  
“I was thinking of that,” Liam says.  
  
“You boys go right ahead,” Dan tells them. “There’s microphones all over if you need them,”  
  
So that’s exactly what they do. They put four stools next to each other, with microphone stands in front of each one. They’ve already played together a handful of times this year, usually at someone house or a surprise performance in each other’s hometowns, but Niall was still nervous because this time they’re being filmed while performing for a documentary, and he wants it to go perfect.  
  
“So what songs are we doing?” Niall asks  
  
“I think two songs would be enough or it’ll be a three hour documentary, Ben tells them.  
  
“Lets do History And Story Of My Life,” Liam says.  
  
The other boys nod, and get ready for Ben to start filming. They sing Story Of My Life first, and then History, and Niall thinks they did a pretty good job for a band that’s barely performed together in the last eight years.  
  
After the two performances, Ben does an impromptu interview while they’re still sitting, and then Niall pulls out his phone to take a selfie of all of them, before he forgets to. He’ll have to remember to post it later on when the movie is out.  
  
Before they leave, they walk around the building once more. Harry’s talking to Dan about something music related and Liam went off to the bathroom, when Louis pulls him aside to talk.  
  
“What’s up?” Niall furrows his eyebrows.  
  
“I just want to make sure everything’s ok with you and Harry,” Louis tells him.  
  
Niall sighs.  “Why do you think something wrong?”  
  
“I don’t. But. I know you guys like to hide your problems until it’s too late, and I don’t want you guys not being ok again,” Louis says.  
  
“We’re fine,” Niall reassures him. “We only didn’t tell you guys because we didn’t want to make it into this big thing that we’re back together again. We had two months just to ourselves and we’re taking it slow.”  
  
“Well I’m happy for you guys,” Louis smiles.  
  
When Liam comes back from the bathroom, they say their goodbyes to Dan and leave the studio. When they get to the entrance, Harry takes out a black marker, that he says he apparently took with permission from a desk from inside the studio, and suggests signing their name on the wall outside. They just put “1D” and that’s it, not wanting to take up too much room. Then they take a few pics outside, and of course a picture crossing the famous crosswalk. They get spotted by a few people, surprisingly, Niall’s still not used to it, so they run to the car, hoping them being at Abbey Road isn’t on twitter later.

************

In the next few days, they go around to a few places where they filmed old music videos, like ‘One Thing’ and ‘You & I’, And reminisce on making them. Their last stop is Fountain Studios, where Ben interviews them about the X-Factor days. Since The X-Factor is where they met, Ben asks them to give their first impressions of each other when they were first put together.

“Well Niall was the loud, carefree one from the start,” Louis says.

“Wherever there was noise, you could always find Niall. He was like the popular kid in school,” Liam says. “You were the exact opposite, Louis. Which is weird now cause then you became very loud,”

“Louis was sort of the leader, I think we all found him pretty hilarious,” Harry says.

“Except for Liam,” Louis smirks, making everyone laugh.

“Liam was the serious one, still is sometimes,” Niall nods.

“I think we needed that though, but at the same time it was fun messing with him,” Harry says.

“I feel like Harry was all of us combined, in a way,” Louis says.

“Harry was cheeky, and he also switched from being loud to quiet, and you never knew what Harry you were going to get. You didn’t know if he was going to cuddle you or throw a snowball at your face when you least expect it,” Liam chuckles.

“That was one time Liam, and you liked it,” Harry smirks.

They banter a bit more, then move on to other questions about the X-Factor.

The next thing they do is work on their EP, which they decided will be four new songs, and two re-recorded old songs. They also plan everything out for the tour next year, which spans about seven months. Niall calls up the guys from their old musical band, but only Sandy is available, so he asks some of the guys from his own musical band to come fill in the spots they need.  
  
In mid July, a week before their fourteenth year anniversary as a band, they hold a press conference in London to announce their reunion tour.  
  
“What made you guys want to reunite?” A journalist asks them.  
  
“Well we’ve always said we would reunite for a tour, and the time just felt right,” Niall replies. “And that’s how we always wanted to reunite, when the time felt right.”  
  
“And I think we’re so lucky that we’re able to still come back after so long,” Harry says. “I think it’s great that we can go on break and have our successful solo careers, and then come back successfully because people still like us. I even saw  we were trending on twitter earlier today.”  
  
“Has anything changed since you went on break? Is the chemistry still there?” another journalist asks.  
  
“Well we’ve definitely grown up a lot, haven’t we lads?” Louis says, looking around at all three of them. “We’re all in our thirties now. We’ve all stayed mates though, which can’t be said about all bands can it?”  
  
“The chemistry is still there though, we’re just a bit older now,” Liam adds. “I think the break we had made us become closer now that we’ve reunited. It made us appreciate each other more.”  
  
“Tell us more about the EP and documentary that’s rumored to be coming out next year?” A third journalist asks.  
  
“The EP is going to consist of four new songs, and we’re gonna pick one song each that we wrote and then two re-recorded songs, but those will be surprises,” Liam says. “And the documentary is going to basically be just footage of us going around our hometowns and around London, talking about the past and reminiscing on memories. New fans will get to see where we came from, and old fans will love reliving some memories.”  
  
“Was was it like going back to your roots? And when will this EP be out?” the same journalist asks.  
  
“It was really special, and like Liam said earlier, I think it brought us closer and made us appreciate each other a little more,” Harry answers. “And as for the EP, we’re still working on it but we hope to release it at the end of the year.”  
  
“And is this it for One Direction? What’s the plan after this tour? A breakup?” A fourth journalist asks.  
  
“No,” Louis sighs, playfully rolling his eyes. “We really have no clue what’s next. But I don’t think we’re going to break up,”  
  
“The never ending question,” Niall chuckles. It’s true though, the amount of times he’s been asked if they broke up is never ending. “I think we’re all with Tommo on this one. No break up, just breaks.”  
  
And he hopes he’s right.

**********

**ONE YEAR LATER**

Fifteen. That’s the amount of years they’ve been a band for. Right on the date, July 23rd, playing a sold out show at the O2 Arena in London. The crowd is amazing, and they really can’t believe all of it.  
  
“O2 Arena!!” Harry screams. “We’re One Direction, And fifteen years ago today, in this city, a band was created on The X-Factor.”  
  
“Who was the band again, Harry?” Liam asks, jokingly furrowing his eyebrows.  
  
“I don’t know, I don’t think they made it very far either, did they?” Harry smirks, making the whole crowd scream.  
  
“I think they were called separate directions?” Louis adds.  
  
“Or four directions,” Niall chuckles.  
  
They let the crowd go crazy for a minute, soaking all of it in, before Harry starts speaking again.  
  
“All joking aside though, that band was actually us. And we can’t thank each and every one of you enough for everything you’ve done for us in the past fifteen years. Doesn’t matter if you became a fan fifteen years ago or fifteen minutes ago, thank you.”

***********

**THREE MONTHS LATER**

It’s the end of tour, and their final show is in Los Angeles. Two sold out shows, for that matter.  
  
“You know what would be hilarious?” Niall says to Harry. They’re in the dressing room jamming out on their guitars, while Freddie and Bear are playing video games on the couch next to theirs.  
  
“What?” Harry asks.  
  
“If we came on stage tonight with Freddie and Bear instead of Louis and Liam'” Niall chuckles.  
  
“Oh yeah. Nobody would be fooled,” Harry smirks.  
  
“Hey, guys,” Niall calls out to the two boys on the other couch. “Do you think you can fool everyone and go out onstage tonight pretending to be your dads.”  
  
“Maybe later,” Freddie says, concentrating on the game they’re playing.  
  
“Why do you keep winning,” Bear pouts at Freddie, then looks over to Niall and Harry. “Tell him to let me win for once.”  
  
“I’m winning ‘cause I’m older. When you’re my age you’ll understand,” Freddie tells him.  
  
“I can’t believe we’re watching Louis and Liam as little kids right now,” Niall laughs, looking over at Harry.  
  
“As opposed to us watching them as adults, which is really the same thing,” Harry chuckles, making Niall laugh more.  
  
A few minutes later, Louis and Liam come in, telling them that it’s almost show time.  
  
Freddie and Bear leave with a crew member to take their seats for the show, while the boys go do their ritual that they do every night before going onstage.  
  
“Last show of tour,” Liam says, as they put their hands together.  
  
“Ready?” Louis says.  
  
They say a little chant, and they break apart, running onto the stage for the last time on this tour.

While on stage, Niall keeps thinkinking about everything that’s happened in the last two years. He and Harry got back together, and while he was nervous at first, he’s glad it happened when it did.

Their tour nearly sold out, their EP and documentary did really well, and it’s almost like they’re relieving their prime years this whole year. And as they sing their last song, he thinks, no matter where the future takes them now, they’ll be alright. 

************

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
